Tips for Gay and Lbian Travelers Turkey | Frommer's

Contents:

• TIPS FOR GAY AND LBIAN TRAVELERS TURKEY
• EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
• IN TURKEY, ’S NOT A CRIME TO BE GAY. BUT LGBT ACTIVISTS SEE A RISG THREAT.
• GAY ISTANBUL
• HAVG A GAY OLD TIME TURKEY
• TURKEY 2ND MOST RTRICTIVE UNTRY ON GAY RIGHTS EUROPE
• TURKEY: PORTUGUE TOURIST SAYS HE WAS JAILED FOR LOOKG GAY
• ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL

TIPS FOR GAY AND LBIAN TRAVELERS TURKEY

The social suatn for members of the gay muny is better smopolan Istanbul than ral areas, where honor killgs still occur; but whether or not people feel fortable g out to their fay and iends pletely pends on their own ntext and would still mean a number of risks.

Istanbul and some of the most tourist-iendly areas, such as Bodm, have a fairly thrivg gay scene, wh pulsg dance floors, gay bars, and hamams; but many lols who are volved the gays scene by night are livg a different life by day, as they are not able to be open wh their fay or iends, and certaly not at work, where they uld worry about the impact would have on their future. Even Ankara and Izmir, Turkey’s pal and most Wtern-leang cy rpectively, don’t have anythg that close to beg scribed as a ‘gay scene’, so while they’re tertg plac to vis, gay travelers shouldn’t expect a party. There is also a range of hamams, but they are equented by everyone bee they are such a tradnal Turkish experience, so gay travelers should not assume they are specifilly gay foced.

EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI

If you are stayg Istanbul or a seasi rort like Antalya, startg a night out a known gay-iendly bar is a good way to get chattg to lols and then plan your night om there.

Gay Marriage⚭✖ UnregnizedCensorship✖ State-enforcedChangg Genr✖ Legal, but requir surgeryNon-bary genr regnn✖ Not legally regnizedDiscrimatn✖ Illegal some ntextsEmployment Discrimatn✖ Sexual orientatn onlyHog Discrimatn✖ No protectnsDonatg Blood✖ Banned (fe ferral)Conversn Therapy✖ Not banned. The Constutnal Court stated that llg homosexuals "viants" or "perverts" nstut hate protectnsIn Turkey, there are currently no laws place to prevent discrimatn agast LGBT dividuals the areas of work, tn, hog, health re, and public protectnsThere are not any protectns for LGBT Turks. However, ’s important to remember that Istanbul is pal of an Islamic untry; for all s liberal aspects, Turkey is chg s way closer to Middle Eastern valu daily, and this is havg a knock-on effect on LGBT rights Istanbul that gay travelers to the area should take to nsiratn.

IN TURKEY, ’S NOT A CRIME TO BE GAY. BUT LGBT ACTIVISTS SEE A RISG THREAT.

Homosexualy is not illegal Turkey: between adults, same-sex sexual activy was ma legal the Ottoman Empire 1858, and sce morn Turkey’s foundatn 1923 has always been legal. However, there are some rather ambiguo bans the crimal on “offens agast public moraly” which n be terpreted agast LGBT people and homosexuals are banned om ary service. Currently, there are no anti-discrimatn laws Turkey that protect LGBT people om discrimatn the public sphere or employment, although opposn parti have tried to troduce bills providg legal protectn for gay and transgenr people.

GAY ISTANBUL

A report published by Human Rights Watch 2008 outled the daily threat of vlence and discrimatn faced by gay and transgenr people, wh sufficient reactn om police and the thori. The social suatn for members of the gay muny is better smopolan Istanbul than ral areas but whether or not people feel fortable g out to their fay and iends is extremely ntext-pennt and still pos a number of risks.

HAVG A GAY OLD TIME TURKEY

Istanbul has a fairly thrivg gay scene, wh pulsg dance floors, gay bars, and hamams; but many lols who participate are livg a double life, beg unable to be open wh their fai or at work for fear of the negative impact uld have on their future. The shift towards nservatism Turkey as a whole do not bo well, but Istanbul’s long-tablished liberal character uld hold firm agast a risg ti of anti-gay feelg and hopefully ph that ti back. In fact, the current climate, snas and hamams will actively avoid beg labeled as ‘gay-iendly, ’ so is better jt to enjoy the as cultural experienc unls you are wh someone the know.

Although homosexualy is legal Turkey, we're talkg about a fairly nservative culture, so discretn is advisable -- even if Turkish men are to more public displays of affectn wh each other than wh their wiv. Still gayns is g more and more out of the closet Turkey; 2009, more than 3, 000 members of the lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) muny attend the Pri March Istanbul. (Istanbul) – Turkish police attacked and arrted hundreds of people at the Istanbul Pri March on June 26, 2022, a sweepg display of vlence and discrimatn agast lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people, Human Rights Watch said today.

The same day, Fahrett Altun, Print Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s munitns director, ma an anti-LGBT speech, sayg that “Fai and children [are] targeted through … tolerance for homosexualy propaganda” and llg homosexualy “ugls.

TURKEY 2ND MOST RTRICTIVE UNTRY ON GAY RIGHTS EUROPE

On 13 September 2018, was reported that the Turkish Rad and Televisn Supreme Council (RTUK) fed cy of Bursa Broadster AS TV 17, 000 Turkish liras for showg mic vio ''Secrets'' by Pk - that featured ''erotic dance figur of a homosexual nature'' - durg hours when children and young people uld watch and be negatively fluenced [R1. On 24 November 2017, the Beyoglu district ernor's office reportedly banned a one-day ftival that had been set to showse short films on gay issu on Saturday, claimg the event would not be allowed to take place, a bid to ''protect public orr and safety, others' rights and eedoms, and to prevent crime'' [R2. On 19 November 2017, was reported that the Ankara ernor's office had banned all events by lbian, gay, bisexual, trans and tersex rights groups s pal cy to protect ''public secury'' for an ''fe'' perd wh effect om 18 November [R2.

On 17 June 2016, was reported that the ernor of the Turkish cy of Istanbul had banned gay, lbian and transgenr dividuals om holdg pri paras at their ual venue, cg secury ncerns, disallowg march partg om Istanbul's inic Taksim Square ''for the safety of our cizens and the participants'' [R2. On 14 September 2012, was reported that the Jtice and Development Party (AKP) had vetoed a proposal jotly troduced by the ma opposn Republin People's Party (CHP) and the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) that would have brought nstutnal protectn for gay rights [R1. On 30 April 2010, Judge Mursel Ermis the Izmir Court, rejected a mand sought by the ernor's office to ban Siyah Pembe Ucgen (Black Pk Triangle), a group mpaigng for gay rights [R2.

In July 2008, a gay stunt activist is alleged to have been shot what is believed to be Turkey's first reported gay "honour killg" rried out by members of his own fay [R1. On 10 Febary 2014, Met Çiçek, the father and uncl Seyhm and Mehmut, were jailed for life for the 2012 'honour killg' of 17-year-old gay teenager Ros Çiçek the south-east cy of Diyarbakir [R2.

TURKEY: PORTUGUE TOURIST SAYS HE WAS JAILED FOR LOOKG GAY

On 18 Febary 2013, Judge Mahmut Erml an Istanbul urt of the first stance, livered a landmark lg sayg that gay sex is natural, ntradictg a prev lg by Turkey's supreme urt 2012. On 26 November 2012, Defense Mister İsmet Yılmaz was expected to troduce a new penalty regulatn draft for the Turkish Armed Forc unr which beg gay will be nsired as a ser offence and reason for dismissal, makg the unwrten policy a regulatn [R1. On 26 March 2012, gay nscripts seekg to "prove" their homosexualy orr to avoid ary service, reportedly mt provi explic photographs wh their face visible and showg themselv as the passive partner [R1.

ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL

In November 2010, the Turkish Armed Forc, or TSK, nied askg for "photographic" proof that people seekg an exemptn om pulsory ary service on the grounds of their homosexualy are actually gay [R1. On 09 October 2012, the European Court of Human Rights led favour of a gay Turkish prisoner who was put solary nfement after plag about bullyg om mat sayg that the ndns which he was held nstuted 'human or gradg treatment' breach of Article 3 of the European Conventn of Human Rights and vlatn of Article 14 of the ECHR, which protects people om discrimatn on the grounds of sexual orientatn.

In March 2021, after the ernment received wispread domtic and ternatnal cricism for whdrawg om the Council of Europe Conventn on Preventg and Combattg Vlence agast Women and Domtic Vlence (known as the Istanbul Conventn), officials rpond wh an anti-LGBT statement and clared that they whdrew om the nventn bee is beg hijacked by groups to normalize homosexualy.

Homophobic ernment statements like the have reverberatg effects the public sphere, where LGBT rights groups have documented a dramatic rise anti-LGBT rhetoric the news. Acrdg to the kgdom’s relig police, the school was fed 100, 000 riyals ($26, 650) for displayg “the emblem of the homosexuals” on s buildg, one of s admistrators was jailed and the offendg parapet was swiftly repated to match a blue rabow-ee se of the gaily pated school shows how progrs one part of the world n have adverse effects elsewhere and serv as a remr that there are plac where the nnectn between rabows and LGBT rights is eher new or yet to be Afghanistan, only a few years ago, there was a craze for ratg rs wh rabow stickers – which Che factori were only too happy to supply. It wasn’t until the Afghan Pajhwok news agency explaed how they might be misterpreted that the craze me to a sudn on the ter and you will also fd pi of the “Rabow Qur’an” for sale – an unnscly gay edn of the holy book wh tted pag of every hue and remend on one webse as “an ial gift for Mlims” there are two sis to this cross-cultural misunrstandg.

Genr segregatn, which go to extreme lengths the more nservative Mlim untri, enurag homosocial behavur, creatg a suatn where men are often more fortable the prence of other men and where placg a hand on another man’s knee is a sign of iendship, not an vatn to sex. Historilly, Mlim societi have often acknowledged this – toleratg to some extent even if they the 19th and early 20th centuri, men who had been persecuted for their sexualy Europe often sought refuge Moroc and, long before same-sex marriage was dreamed of the wt, male-on-male partnerships were regnised – and marked wh a ceremony – the remote Egyptian oasis of some Mlim untri, whole towns have bee the butt of jok about the supposed homosexualy of their habants. In Egypt, for example, an old law agast “bchery” is often laws have a tastrophic effect on the liv of people who are unlucky enough to get ught but, spe ocsnal crackdowns, the thori don’t, on the whole, actively seek out gay people to arrt them.

In England 1952, there were 670 prosecutns for sodomy, 3, 087 for attempted sodomy or cent asslt, and 1, 686 for gross problem wh such laws, even if not vigoroly enforced, is that they signal official disapproval of homosexualy and, upled wh the fulmatns of relig scholars, legimise discrimatn by dividuals at an everyday level and may also provi an exce for actn by vigilant. Years before Isis began throwg allegedly gay men off the top of buildgs, other groups Iraq were attackg “un-manly” men – sometim killg them slowly by jectg glue to the reason for the paratively small number of prosecutns is the official fictn that gay people don’t exist to any great extent Mlim untri; homosexualy is regard primarily as a wtern phenomenon and large numbers of arrts would ll that to qutn. Some of the most btal Arab regim (Iraq unr Saddam Hse and Syria unr the Assads, for example) also showed ltle tert attackg gay people – probably bee they had other thgs to worry Syrian refugee Subhi Nahas wh the US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, durg an rmal meetg on the persecutn of LGBT people by Isis.