IGY-Israel LGBTQ+ Youth Movement

The Israeli LGBTQ+ Youth Organization (IGY) was established in 2002 and since then has become the largest LGBTQ+ organization in Israel. The organization works for social change towards a more equal and tolerant society and works directly with and for LGBTQ+ youth (13-23) in the stages of formulating their sexual and/or gender identity through regular weekly social-educational activities. From its inception until today, our organization is the only nationwide organization that works for LGBTQ+ youth in Israel and in recent years has grown to be the largest of the LGBTQ+ community organizations in the country. IGY has set itself the goal of working to empower LGBTQ+ youth to create a meaningful role for themselves in society and to encourage them to take part in shaping both their local communities and Israeli society as a whole. The organization’s work in education and social change includes both LGBTQ+ and heterosexual young people. Our vision and work is to eradicate the phenomena of violence, racism and manifestations of homophobia in order to create a just, egalitarian and democratic society. ALWAN is IGY’s groups for LGBTQ+ youth from the Arab community in Israel. The first of its kind, it has taken steps, such as translating the IGY website into Arabic and founding community-specific youth groups, to actively reach and reach out to youth and young adults within the community. LGBTQ+ youth from the periphery IGY’s Religious Groups have been operating for just over five years. Acting as both a social space and a platform for open and important discourse, these groups constitute one of the only safe spaces for Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox LGBTQ+ youth to actively engage with both their religious and LGBTQ+ identities. IGY’s Religious Groups strive to offer an alternative narrative to that which is commonplace in those communities, namely conversion treatment and the like. MITRIA (umbrella in Hebrew) is a collection of groups and a club for youth and young adults who identify as trans*. Transgender teenagers are considered youth at risk on the highest level and are exposed to abuse frequently by their families, their surroundings and the society. IGY is creating safe spaces where these transgender youth can feel a sense of belonging and safety