Tips for Gay and Lbian Travelers Turkey | Frommer's

Contents:

• TURKEY’S FIRST 'GAY MARRIAGE'
• EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
• THE FIRST COUNTRI TO LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE
• IS TURKEY READY TO ELECT S FIRST OPENLY GAY LAWMAKER?
• TIPS FOR GAY AND LBIAN TRAVELERS TURKEY
• ARAB-KURDISH UPLE TI THE KNOT LANDMARK GAY WEDDG

TURKEY’S FIRST 'GAY MARRIAGE'

It is bee of this that gay pri pageants, unthkable other preponrantly Mlim untri, n be held Istanbul whout the kds of homophobic attacks one sometim se at such events, cludg some nservative Orthodox Christian muni the regn. This do not, however, mean that there is broad social acceptance of homosexualy or that life is easy for the lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) muny. Ek Ker and Emllah Tuzun, two gay men their 20s, found this out the hard way after they cid early September to publicly “marry” Istanbul.

Some mor chang have recently been troduced to amend a blatantly homophobic article the penal after a se was lodged wh the Constutnal Court.

EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI

It is also te that technilly speakg, homosexualy is not illegal Turkey, although statut relatg to public moraly and obsceny are often ed agast gays. 2 a private ceremony aboard a yacht on the Bospos to avoid homophobic attacks. My fay knew I was gay, but they reacted very angrily to my gettg married, ” said Ker.

Kip believ that will take a very long time, if at all, for gay marriage to be regnized Turkey, where circumstanc for members of the LGBT muny, she says, are gettg worse unr the Jtice and Development Party (AKP), which has Islamist roots. “Jt the past 2½ months, 25 attacks, cludg murr, have taken place agast gays and lbians. “Topics such as gay marriage and child adoptn for gays are for the future, ” she said.

When asked to pare the suatn of gays and lbians Turkey wh those other Islamic untri the regn, such as Iran and Sdi Arabia, Kip poted out that gays and lbians om the untri seek refuge Turkey, which they see as a relatively safer place to be as a steppg stone for movg to the eedom of the Wt. While life for gays and lbians Turkey is difficult absolute terms, and ght wh dangers, ndns for the refuge Turkey are still 10 tim better than, for example, ndns Iran, Kip explaed. We also have a gay pri week, which is attend by LGBT members as far afield as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Iran and the Arab world, ” Kip said.

THE FIRST COUNTRI TO LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE

Turkey may ed be a relatively better place for gays and lbians pared wh the untri, but this has not ma life any easier for Ker and Tuzun. Dpe this admistrative hiccup, same-sex marriag are outlawed Turkey, where LGBTQ+ people experience wispread discrimatn spe homosexualy never havg been illegal the untry. 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. Morocn activists participate a vigil Rabat to pay tribute to the victims of the Orlando gay club shootg.

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 those that have no specific law agast homosexualy, gay people may still be prosecuted unr other laws.

IS TURKEY READY TO ELECT S FIRST OPENLY GAY LAWMAKER?

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. Statistics are srce but the number of arrts is undoubtedly lower than was durg the Brish wave of homophobia the 1950s.

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.

TIPS FOR GAY AND LBIAN TRAVELERS TURKEY

Gay people are not the only on, though. Arrts the Arab untri often volve groups of men at parti (sometim scribed as gay “weddgs”) and ocsnally at hammams (bathho).

Individuals or upl acced of havg unlawful sex may be arrted for a variety of reasons, cludg some which ially are unrelated to homosexualy. There are also reported s where people spected of beg gay have been arrted by police seekg to elic brib or turn the spects to rmers.

ARAB-KURDISH UPLE TI THE KNOT LANDMARK GAY WEDDG

For those ught, the effect on their liv is tastrophic but the law is not much of a terrent and for those who are discreet about their sexualy the risk of arrt is the vast majory who intify as gay, lbian or transgenr the attus of fay and society are a much bigger one issue that affects all gay people – everywhere – at some pot their liv is g out. A few of the more fortunate on fd a gay or lbian partner of the oppose sex and enter a pretend marriage. In Egypt and Lebanon – predomantly Mlim untri wh a large Christian populatn – attus towards homosexualy among Christians are not very different om those among Mlims.

Also, ’s clear that the prophet Muhammad never specified a punishment for homosexualy; wasn’t until some years after his ath that Mlims began discsg what a suable punishment might nmnatns of homosexualy, like those Christiany, are based maly on the story about God’s punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah which is reunted the Qur’an as well as the Old Ttament. Although Mlim societi today n be scribed as generally homophobic, ’s a mistake to view homophobia as a self-ntaed problem: ’s part of a syndrome which the rights of dividuals are subsumed the perceived terts of the muny and – often – matag an “Islamic” ethos. Gay men, pecially those who show feme tras, may th be regard as challengg the social orr.

“Transgenr” is a broad term which clus tersex people (whose blogil sex is unclear or was wrongly assigned at birth), those wh genr dysphoria (who feel like “a man trapped a woman’s body”, or vice versa) and may also clu others who simply get pleasure or satisfactn om police e a water nnon to disperse LGBT rights activists before a Gay Pri para central Istanbul, Turkey.