With June having celebrated gay rights worldwide, IDF Website met soldiers past and present who identify as gay and served all over the army Author: Gili Malinsky The following is the first in a series of interviews.
Cpl. Sivan Fiterman, 19, Tel Aviv
Tell us about yourself.
I was born in Germany, my dad was working on a film there. He’d started a post-production company. When I was four I moved to Israel but I don’t remember anything from Germany and I don’t speak German because my mom is American and my dad is Israeli. Art has always been part of my life. I sketch and use oil paints. I live in an apartment with my brother and my mom lives in the same building in an apartment above us. When I was 17 my dad was killed in a car accident. It was hard.
When did you come out of the closet?
I never had an official [coming-out] period. In middle school I would know I have a crush on this girl but I wouldn’t think about it more deeply than that. My brother officially came out to me and my mom when he was young – eighth grade, after summer camp in the states. And I saw that my parents were fine with it. I also went to a high school for the arts which was known as a “gay and lesbian school”. So it was never a problem. At one point my brother said mom had asked if I was gay and he didn’t know what to tell her. So I said if she asks again you can tell her I am. She never asked me directly but then she asked him, he told her and she told the whole world.
What do you do in the army?
I was drafted to the Spokesperson Unit’s film branch for editing but ended up in post-production, which is graphics, animation and visual effects in films. I did graphics in the opening credits of a film for the Chief of Staff. I did animation for an Armored Corps film about the Corps’ fallen soldiers. It was a collage of photos featuring anything they do in the Corps – from checking the tanks to just walking side by side them. It’s a lot of classic drawing, frame by frame. I like it better than editing because you’re actually creating something, something with movement and sound.
What was it like coming out in the army?
I didn’t come out and say it like no one comes out and says “I’m straight”. It’s something I’m sure people know about me. I don’t hide it. And there were never any comments from anywhere.
Do you think that reflects the army’s attitude as a whole?
I think the army accepts it exactly the same way the world does – it depends on people. The army as a whole is just a bunch of people with their own opinions. The only rules about intimacy or touching are ones that apply to everyone, including touching between guys and girls.
The following is the second in a series of interviews.
Barak Ganor, 22, Ganei Hatikva
Tell us about yourself.
I’m freshly released from the army, finished six months ago, about to start a degree in Theatre and Asian Studies at Tel Aviv University. I live with my parents. I went to a big high school, 500 kids in each grade. Theatre was what made my high school experience. I sang and danced and everything. I really like the art form. The rehearsals, the immediate feedback you get as opposed to other types of artwork. Theatre is alive, real, closer to the artist and the audience. You’re dealing with the here and now.
When did you come out?
I did it a little backwards. I think by sixth grade I knew it. I didn’t know how to express it but I knew it. When I was 15 I was part of a group of actors [called IGY’s Stars, affiliated with the Israeli Gay Youth organization.] We put on a piece where I had to kiss a guy. I mean forget the fact that it was my first kiss in life, it was on a stage.
A few days before opening night, they came to interview us from Go Gay, an Israeli site. They had us, a few of the actors, sit in a circle and start off by saying our name, age, where we’re from and our sexual orientation. And that was the first time I really said it, to myself and to the group.
Where did you serve in the army?
I was drafted to the Armored Corps as a combat soldier. At some point my commanders and I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t really working. I was sent to a course for combat medics, joined an Armored Corps battalion as a medic and eventually was sent to a course to learn to command other soldier medics. When I went back to the battalion we went straight into Operation Cast Lead, right into the lines of fire.
Nothing happened to our battalion, but it was scary because you don’t really know what’s going on around you. Usually you’re sitting in the tank for two or three days, you have to pee in bottles. I slept twelve hours a day because there’s nothing to do in a tank! You wear what’s called a Jantex, a helmet with a sort of microphone attached to it. But a person can’t really live in such intense fear for a long time. At some point, about a week after we started, fear turned into humor.
How did people react when you came out in the army?
I came out to one of my commanders in basic training. In our first conversation I told him I was gay. And he reacted like I said I need to blow my nose. He took it completely fine. I was never given trouble, no one ever let me down easy because I’m gay. It was never, never, never an issue.
At the end of my service I was in the elite unit of the Armored Corps and there were gay guys there, too. And people were totally cool with it. And that’s an elite unit. I’m also completely at peace with it. I like who I am and what I am and as soon as you’re at peace with who you are, problems are much easier to solve if there are any.
