(Tel Aviv, Israel) Yossi finally has a legal family – even though he’s 30 years old and it took nearly 14 years for a court to approve his adoption by a male same-sex couple.

Yossi was disowned by his parents when he was 16 and came out to them.  Even and Kama took him in. Eventually a court accepted the men as foster parents but it took two events for the couple to begin the fight to adopt Yossi.

The first came in 2004 when Even and Kama flew to Toronto and were married, shortly after gay marriage became legal in Canada – even though the marriage is not recognized in Israel. The second came when Yossi applied to university.

Even is a chemistry professor at Tel Aviv University and in 2007 Yossi sought the reduced tuition rate that the children of professors receive. He was turned down because Even was not his legal father.

Even turned to Dori Spivak, the deputy director of the law clinic programs at the university and the legal process to adopt Yossi began.

The Welfare Ministry began a probe to determine whether the Even-Kama’s and Yossi had a legitimate parent-child relationship. The report was submitted to the Family Court with the adoption application.

In her ruling Family Court Judge Alissa Miller said “I was convinced that the necessary conditions as proscribed by the laws concerning adoption of children had been fulfilled.”

“The significance of this decision is that tomorrow homosexual couples can turn into a family and adopt a child,” Kama told The Jerusalem Post. “After speaking with Dori Spivak we decided to shoot into the mist and we said that we don’t have anything to lose. The Welfare Ministry was shocked by our demand to recognize the adoption.

“The parent-child relationship has existed with us for 14 years. Its not that we adopted a child yesterday. We always were a loving, living family but were not recognized by the authorities. Personally, there is great excitement and great happiness. The authorities and the state know now officially that the life that we live is the life of a loving family. This is a great victory,” he told The Post.

Although this was the first case involving a gay male couple it is not the first where a same-sex couple has been given parenting rights.

In 2005, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the lesbian partner of a woman who birthed a child had co-parenting rights and approved an adoption in the that case.