Two dads, one child… and a legal family
Israeli tennis star Tzipi Obziler, 34, became a mother a month after playing at Wimbledon last June. Then, less than a month after her daughter Lihi was born, she was on court again playing in the US Open. Yet this was not the remarkable physical feat of recovery that it may appear. For it was not Obziler who gave birth, but Hadas, her partner of 13 years.
Israeli tennis star Tzipi Obziler, 34, became a mother a month after playing at Wimbledon last June. Then, less than a month after her daughter Lihi was born, she was on court again playing in the US Open. Yet this was not the remarkable physical feat of recovery that it may appear. For it was not Obziler who gave birth, but Hadas, her partner of 13 years.
As far as Obziler is concerned, she has always been as much Lihi’s mother as Hadas. But it is only now, following a ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court, that she can be officially recognised as Lihi’s parent.
The court ruled in December that the Interior Ministry must register a biological mother’s female partner as a child’s second parent. According to the pressure group New Family: Organisation for Family Rights, there are an estimated 2,000 Israeli lesbian couples raising children together in Israel. Obziler is one of 30 lesbians to have begun the registration process.
Earlier this month, the Israeli government took the issue one step further when Attorney-General Meni Mazuz instructed the Welfare Ministry agency responsible for adoption that same-sex couples should be eligible to adopt children. This opened the way to official fatherhood for ten male couples waging a legal battle to be recognised as parents of their adopted children. “There is nothing that dictates that the adoption of a child by a same-sex couple is not in the best interests of the adoptee,” said Mazuz in his ruling.
