The Israeli Supreme Court touched off a fresh controversy over gay rights Tuesday when it ordered the government to register same-sex marriages performed abroad.
The ruling by a seven-judge panel, though limited in scope, reignited a debate over the rights of homosexuals in Israel after ultra-Orthodox religious leaders led protests that resulted in the cancellation of a gay pride parade this month in Jerusalem.
The 6-1 decision was praised by rights advocates as a political advance for gays and lesbians, who have won previous court decisions granting them broader rights in survivor benefits and inheritance. It also was cheered by those who support legalizing civil marriages in Israel, where only religious ceremonies are allowed.
The ministry said same-sex marriages were not legally valid in Israel and could not be listed in the government's registry. In its ruling Tuesday, the court ordered the government to register same-sex marriages that are legal abroad.
Religious conservatives criticized the decision as an erosion of Israel's status as a Jewish state and said it undermined moral teachings.
Secular Israelis have long complained about the broad authority wielded by the country's leading Orthodox rabbis. Many couples travel overseas to marry in civil ceremonies, a practice that has spawned a matrimonial cottage industry in the nearby island nation of Cyprus.
The issue of civil marriage is important among emigres from the former Soviet Union, many of whom are not Jewish or can't prove their heritage to the satisfaction of rabbinical authorities in Israel. Several candidates in national elections last spring promised Russian voters that they would try to make it easier for them to marry in Israel, though no reforms have been passed.
The lawyers in the same-sex marriage case cited as a precedent a Supreme Court decision from the 1960s that ordered the government to register civil marriages performed abroad, Loeff said.
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Originally Posted by Quant