Tzfat Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu spoke on Wednesday morning about the push by LGBT activists to equate themselves with heterosexual childless couples with regards to adoption.
"We will not allow Israel to become LGBTistan," Rabbi Eliyahu told Army Radio. "There is LGBT terror, which forces the system to do what it views as being against healthy thinking. To say this is sick is an understatement - it's something that needs to be treated and fixed."
MK Merav Ben Ari (Kulanu) responded, "This is absolutely awful. He's said so many things which helped me. My daughter has a homosexual father who I am proud of and who I talk about to everyone. Every time you think that things are fantastic and we're liberal, you understand why we need a parade."
Ben Ari is a single woman who asked her gay friend to co-parent a child with her. He agreed, and the two went through IVF together, producing their infant daughter. The two parents live down the street from each other, respect each other, and are on good terms.
45 Religious Zionist rabbis, including rabbis Haim Druckman, Dov Lior, Eliezer Waldman, and several other prominent rabbis wrote Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) a letter of encouragement supporting her stance on LGBT adoption.
You can read the full Hebrew letter here.
The letter does not mention explicitly the issue of LGBT adoption, but hints that Shaked is doing the right thing by refusing to change the status quo.
"Today, when voices request an immoral change in the State's Torah-inspired custom, we support Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked for her preservation of Jewish values and her strong support of the traditional and moral family, as is expected from a representative of the Knesset's Religious Zionist party," the rabbis wrote.
"Our holy Torah is a lighthouse and conscience for the Jewish nation and the entire world. It is therefore fitting that the State of Israel should stand guard and preserve moral family values and ensure the public arena honors moral and human values, as well as Judaism.
"We support all public figures who choose this path."
The crux of the argument
Since prospective adoptive parents far outnumber adoptable healthy babies, infants aged two and under are saved for heterosexual childless couples, each of whom is limited to two "baby" adoptions. A childless heterosexual couple who wants three children can either adopt two babies and an older child, foster, use a surrogate, or pray for an IVF miracle.
LGBT individuals and "couples" are allowed to adopt, but like singles, parents of biological children, and the handicapped, they are not placed on the priority list, making it unlikely they will be allowed to adopt children under two years of age. As a result, LGBTs (and heterosexual couples with biological children) are usually limited to adopting older children or children with disabilities for whom no childless couple can be found.
However, the LGBT campaign claims that LGBT "couples" are "not allowed to adopt" and are discriminated against. Their goal is to bump themselves up to first priority along with heterosexual childless couples - who should be able to have children on their own, but are unable to do so for a medical reason.
It is worth noting that lesbian "couples" receive an 85% subsidy for all fertility treatments and drugs for their first four children - two for each woman. Heterosexual couples, in which there is only one woman, receive the subsidy for their first two children only.
A comprehensive long term study by sociologist Mark Regnerus of the University of Texas at Austin published in the Journal of Social Science Research in 2012 and summarized by the Family Research Council has shown that children adopted by same-sex parents are at a distinct disadvantage compared to those in conventional families for most of the categories in the study.