IDF Gay Pride Month Facebook post
New report indexing LGBT treatment in military ranks finds IDF in top-ten in terms of inclusion, admission and lack of persecution of sexual minorities
Tel Aviv is known world-wide as extremely gay-friendly, but a new report now claims the same about the IDF.
The Hague Center for Strategic Studies has recently launched the LGBT Military Index and in its first report has ranked the IDF in the 9th place world wide in terms of acceptance of sexual minorities, beating out the US and neighbors Egypt, Lebanon and Syria. Iran, for its part, ranked second to last.
The index attempts to map and grade LGBT participation in armed forces, judging 103 nations according to inclusion, admission, tolerance, exclusion, and persecution of sexual minorities. Each nation received a grade for each criterion, and they were then given an average overall score.
New Zealand ranked first on the index with an impressive 100, followed by the Netherlands, the UK, Sweden, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Belgium and finally Israel in ninth with 92; Spain and France tied for the number ten position.
The United States failed not only to make it into the top ten, but fell in with only the top 40 nations – achieving 72.8 out of a possible 100.
Iran, for its part, received only a 6, and was second only to Nigeria which was in last place with a miserable 3 points. Syria fared better, reaching an unimpressive 7, or third from last.
Israel’s other neighbor to the north – Lebanon – did substantially better than its embattled Syrian neighbor, ranking among the bottom three deciles with a 38.5. Egypt did worst, averaging an overall 25.5.
