Live in Israel! Make Jewish Babies!

So, a little background: Jews in Israel almost unanimously think that Jews from the Diaspora should move to Israel, marry a Jew, and have Jewish children. And they are not shy about sharing their opinions (on anything!) Also, Judaism doesn't have missionaries, and it's not permitted to proselytize. So, instead, some Jews try to make other Jews more halachically observant, because they believe that if all Jews observe the all miztvot, than the Moshiach will come.

There is a woman in my ulpan who is Orthodox, a Baal Teshuva who grew up Reform. She is in her twenties, has two young kids, and has been living in Jerusalem for the past five years. I like her a lot actually. She is very interested in how observant I am (or, alternately, how not observant I am), and has invited me over for Shabbat, as well as suggesting other Judaism-focused activities for me. Recently, during our hafsakah (הפסקה) we were talking about cleaning for Passover. The conversation morphed into what food has chametz in it, and she mentioned of that in Jerusalem it's illegal to sell chametz during Passover. I responded that that must be hard for non-Jews, and she responded that non-Jews shouldn't be in Jerusalem.

I guess I made a face, because her very next question was:
"So, how important is marrying Jewish to you?"
I hesitated, and made a little mumbling sound.
"But, you do want to raise your kids Jewish, right?"
Finally, I just blurted out "I'm gay. So I don't know how much the whole marriage thing will be in my future."
Not even skipping a beat, she responds that gay marriage is legal in California, so I could just get married there and then come and live in Israel*. And besides, my kids would still be halachically Jewish.

I had no response.



(*Gay marriage actually isn't legal in California. Marriage in Israel is complicated, so sometimes people get married outside of Israel and then get the marriage recognized here.)