IGY – Israel Gay Youth

IGY — Israel Gay Youth (הנוער הגאה) — is Israel's national LGBTQ+ youth organisation, founded in Tel Aviv in 2002 to serve teenagers aged 12-23. Before IGY, there were scattered coming-out groups in Aguda and elsewhere; IGY was the first attempt to build a country-wide network of dedicated queer youth spaces. After the 2009 Bar-Noar attack, in which one IGY counsellor (Nir Katz) and one IGY visitor (Liz Trubeshi) were killed, the organisation grew fast — the wave of public sympathy and municipal support translated into permanent premises in dozens of Israeli cities. IGY now operates 40+ branches nationwide, serves approximately 4,000 teenagers per year, and runs Israel's only nationally-networked coming-out helpline for people under 23. The organisation's Tel Aviv branch — now called **Beit Dror** — operates from the Gan Meir Municipal LGBTQ+ Community Centre, in shared premises with Aguda. It is not the same as Bar-Noar (the pre-2009 Nahmani Street centre) — Beit Dror is a rebuild in a new location, with entirely refreshed physical security, and takes its name from Nir Katz's Hebrew middle name Dror ("freedom"). Open for drop-in most evenings during the school year, typically 16:00-22:00 Sunday-Thursday. Registration required for programmed activities; drop-in visits welcome. Not primarily a heritage site — an operating youth infrastructure whose 20-year history is the heritage. Wheelchair accessible; refugee youth welcome; entirely free.