Tel Aviv’s last remaining gay bar closes its doors
By Will Stroude
Tel Aviv is known as the Middle East’s most LGBT-friendly city, but according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, there is no longer an exclusively LGBT bar in the Mediterranean city.
According to reports, the city’s Evita bar closed it’s doors on Saturday (July 30) after 12 years in business.
Shay Rokach, the co-founder of Evita, said: “Ee had a wild time here, 12 years. This place has raised generations of people from the community.
“For many people, Evita is the first place they went to, the first kiss, the first love and the place that accepted them without being judgmental.
“Lots of parents came here visiting their sons and daughters after they came out of the closet.”
While Israel is on of the more LGBT-friendly countries in the region, the community remains subject to anti-LGBT prejudice and violence – most notably a stabbing spree at Jerusalem Pride in 2015, which killed a 16-year-old girl and wounded five more.
Israel is still yet to introduce equal marriage, with many gay citizens including Arab-Israeli Kadher Abu Seir, believing that the country still has far to go to welcome LGBT people.
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