It didn’t make major headlines, but Israel quietly swore in its sixth openly gay Knesset member on Monday, Yorai Lahav Hertzanu of Blue and White. According to the report:

Five percent of Israeli lawmakers are now openly gay, the fourth-highest figure in the world, according to political scientist Andrew Reynolds.

It comes “after Britain, 8.1 percent, Liechtenstein, 8 percent, and the Scottish parliament, 7.7 percent,” said Reynolds, who directs an LGBT representative programme at the University of North Carolina in the United States.

The BBC adds:

The country has the most progressive attitude towards LGBTQ people in the Middle East, despite opposition from some conservative sections of society.

They are protected by anti-discrimination laws, have adoption and same-sex inheritance rights, and have been allowed to serve in the military since 1993.

Last year, Amir Ohana, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, became Israel’s first openly gay member of cabinet when he was appointed acting justice minister. He is currently minister of public security.

In a normal world, people on the left who push for LGBTQ rights would be celebrating. Instead, we have Israel haters who say that everything Israel does for gay rights is simply a smokescreen to hide how evil it is.

The accusation is a crazed example of bigotry. But if everyone would do good things to hide bad things, the world would probably be a better place.

Elder of Ziyon has been blogging about Israel and the Arab world for a really long time now. He also controls the world, but deep down, you already knew that.

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