TA Family Court recognizes two men as common-law couple

The Tel Aviv Family Court recently overruled the state to give two men de facto recognition as a common-law couple by giving legal force to a child support agreement they had drafted.

The decision follows on the heels of last month's Nazareth District Court verdict recognizing two men as a common-law couple for the purposes of the inheritance laws - also over the state's objections.

Family Court Judge Yehuda Granit's verdict was issued in the case of two men who, after living together for 19 years, decided to have a child with the aid of a woman who underwent a fictitious marriage with one of them. In 2001, the woman had twins. The men then drew up an agreement with her detailing financial arrangements for the children's care and asked the court to give the agreement contractual force.

The attorney general asked the court to reject this request. But Granit lambasted this stance as discrimination against homosexual couples. Heterosexual couples who choose not to marry are entitled to various legal rights as common-law spouses, he wrote, so homosexual couples should receive the same rights. The right to equality is enshrined in the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty, as is the freedom to choose a spouse of the same sex, he said.

"One would expect an attorney general in a democratic society to work to adjust the law to the reality of life; to defend the rights of all members of society, regardless of their sexual orientation; to be aware of existing and developing realities in society; and not to serve as an automatic mouthpiece for those with conservative ideologies," Granit wrote.

The attorney general's stance on many other issues is similarly one-sided and oblivious of the changes that have taken place in society, he added.

Attorney Irit Rosenblum, head of the New Family Association and the men's representative in court, hailed the verdict as "an important victory for the gay and lesbian community" and said it should also serve as a warning to the Knesset, which last year rejected an amendment to give homosexual couples status in family court.