Israel’s Surrogacy Law ‘HB2’ moment is bad, but not anti-Zionism fodder

We must respect and support the same homegrown activism in Israel that will no doubt prevail in securing surrogacy, adoption rights and universal marriage equality, too.

By HANNAH SIMPSON
Updated: JULY 24, 2018 12:07
Protestors shout slogans during a LGBT community members protest against discriminatory surrogate bill in Tel Aviv, Israel July 22, 2018 (photo credit: CORINNA KERN/REUTERS)
Protestors shout slogans during a LGBT community members protest against discriminatory surrogate bill in Tel Aviv, Israel July 22, 2018
(photo credit: CORINNA KERN/REUTERS)
In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, I boarded a flight to Iceland, from which I would connect to Tel Aviv a day later. It was just enough time to drink glacier tap water, eat fish stew, and experience my legal status as a queer woman in Israel diminish between the time when I departed home and arrived.
The legislation passed in the Knesset on Wednesday could have been revolutionary. While falling far short, it still does expand the state’s socialized-medical coverage for surrogate pregnancies, from infertile heterosexual couples to unwed mothers as well.
By American standards – surrogacy for us requires no less disposable income than a luxury mid-size sedan, and insurance coverage is often explicitly excluded – Israel is making a markedly stronger endorsement of the human dignity that comes from being able to raise a family for those who want than we will see any time soon. On Thursday, the same parliament passed a separate bill on basic laws of Israeli statehood, which is its own conversation.
Where things got boneheaded and bigoted Wednesday, leading to multiple demonstrations and Sunday’s national strike, was a last-minute flip by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his prior promise to add language also opening this surrogacy coverage to single fathers and same-sex couples. Many suspect he caved to ultra-conservative pressure from the fringe of his coalition government.
For the uninitiated, Friday and Saturday is the Israeli weekend. Sunday is a workday – the original Monday – since before Christianity switched things up. This is not a leisurely stroll in the park, but an economic message with teeth from queers and our allies alike and supported by numerous large businesses. Stances on social issues do not sync with American parlance, no matter what the haters try to tell you. An Israeli “right-wing” government is defined by its foreign policy and security tactics, and in fact unites some who are also socially conservative with others who might be considered socially liberal or progressive elsewhere.
I am an American transgender woman dating an Israeli transgender guy. As I never had a uterus and the testosterone he takes deactivates his, surrogacy (using my previously chilled sperm and eggs he can preserve), as well as adoption – which itself sees queer access disparity in Israel – are very real options for us to build our future with, should our relationship progress. State support for us becoming parents equal to any other couple for whom it is physically less complicated, would not only affirm the love and warmth we could offer our children, but also allow us to begin that journey sooner. Instead of saving up for surrogacy itself, we could invest in a college fund.
The American parallel to this experience was watching North Carolina pass its transphobic House Bill 2, or “Bathroom Bill” in March 2016, which attempted to regulate access to public restrooms and changing facilities by birth-certificate gender-marking. Widely panned as a solution searching for a problem and an invasive unenforceable provision from the start, it represented a vocal minority of social ultra-conservatives hamstringing hate into state policy.
ISRAELI ULTRA-ORTHODOXY is the same stain on conservatism that Americans wear as our Tea Party. Moderate conservatives in both nations made the same deal with the devil: The nuts tip the scales a few seats to the Right, yet are contained. If dismissed entirely, they would be incentivized to run as their own party and the big tent of any conservative government would collapse entirely.
In the wake of Edie Windsor’s 2013 takedown of the Defense of Marriage Act, this homophobic front sensed the shifting tide on same-sex marriage and doubled down against trans people like me. A whack-a-mole of transphobic bills and ballot initiatives started in South Dakota and continues today through North Carolina to this summer’s Ohio “Transgender Reporting Bill,” which would require schools to expose students who confide their deepest, darkest secrets to teachers they trust. Transphobia in Israel is ramping up, too. There was an assault, possibly an attempted murder, of a trans woman in Tel Aviv last week.
For North Carolina, one response was to boycott and divest from the state. Major sporting events pulled out rather than tacitly endorse discrimination. Companies canceled planned expansion and job creation. Other states like California even banned non-essential travel there for state employees. Billions were lost in tangential economic activity from ticket sales, hotel stays, bar tabs, etc. The bill was repealed in 2017, about a year after it was passed.
Ironically, the antisemitic Left, especially radical queers, were already proposing the boycott, divestment, and sanctioning of Israel for years on account of actually being socially progressive for LGBTQ rights – because it was just a farce, you see – right? How was this ever the solution in the first place if the same response is proposed now over a setback? It is not the answer. It never was.
I moved to North Carolina from New York shortly after HB2 passed and worked the Hillary campaign as an LGBTQ Organizer. We may not have won the Electoral College votes, but we ousted their slimy governor and took the state in a new direction. Above all, we queers keep our focus on the big picture. We didn’t abandon a sinking ship – we came in and built more pontoons. As the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
We must respect and support the same homegrown activism in Israel that will no doubt prevail in securing surrogacy, adoption rights and universal marriage equality, too, perhaps even before some of these reach our shores.
Do not think about using this week as fodder for your pre-existing anti-Israel agenda. Israelis – Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Druze, alike – have got this. We must take their lead and amplify their voices. Sunday saw the populace rise in support of LGBTQ rights as it never has done so tangibly before. Many will scream, “We are queer and will not cease to exist,” because Israel is still a democracy where you can express dissent in public forum. The free press here will hold this leadership’s failure to account in perpetuity.
There is no other country in the Middle East where these ideals are as possible to contemplate, let alone stand up to demand. Homosexuality is still an arrestable, if not capital offense nearby. It is hard to imagine calling a surrogacy bill for single women “not going far enough” in places where single women cannot even walk the streets, drive unescorted, or keep their intact clitorises into adulthood.
This week was a step backward in Israel, I cannot downplay that fact. American queers have faced setbacks, too, but the faith in both of our nations to ultimately transcend them is what can bring us together. To paraphrase a favorite 2016 campaign quote, “When they go low, we go chai.”
The writer is a transgender/LGBTQ advocate and diversity trainer based in NYC, whose gender pronouns are "she" in English. (Twitter @hannsimp / Instagram @hsimpso).


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