Israeli gay couple celebrates their successful pregnancy and birth with a surrogate and egg donor

Baby Evyatar may not know it yet, but he’s special. His parents have made an over 4,000-km journey from Tel Aviv in Israel to Mumbai only so their dream to extend their family could be realised.

Yonatan and Omer [in the red t-shirt] are gay. With sperm from Yonatan, eggs from an anonymous donor and a surrogate mother, Evyatar came into the world on October 12.

“Evyatar’s a name we chose from the Bible. It means ‘more fathers’ in Hebrew,” explains Yonatan, executive director of Jerusalem Open House, Israel’s biggest gay rights organisation. Omer works as a psychologist in Tel Aviv.

In September, when the surrogate mother was in the 37th week of pregnancy, the couple flew down to Mumbai. “We wanted to be there for the baby’s first moments,” says Omer, adding they have read every book on parenting.

The baby got a local birth certificate after which a DNA test was performed on him. “The results were sent to the Israeli consulate, which issued him a passport,” says Yonatan. They couple, who flew back home on Monday, says they will be back next year, this time with Omer’s sperm.