Turkish Milary Relax Homophobic Policy - Gay Natn

Contents:

• PROVG YOU'RE GAY TO THE TURKISH ARMY
• TURKISH GAYS FACE GRADG TTS TO AVOID ARMY
• GAYS SEEKG ARY EXEMPTN TURKEY NO LONGER NEED TO PROVI VISUAL PROOF OF THEIR HOMOSEXUALY

PROVG YOU'RE GAY TO THE TURKISH ARMY

What are the implitns of the Republic of Turkey’s paradoxil polici of universal male nscriptn and excln of gay men om ary service? To answer this qutn, this project draws on four months of rearch Turkey where terviews were nducted wh proment lawyers and activists as well as wh gay men who personally experienced the humane exemptn procs of the Turkish ary. The exemptn methods, along wh the classifitn of gay men as psychologilly ill, monstrate the Turkish ary’s repeated adherence to scientific practic discreded by the morn medil and psychologil muny.

"Ahmet, a young man his 20s, told officials he was gay at the first opportuny after he was lled up, as he and other nscripts unrwent a health check.

'' Instead he gave them a photograph of himself kissg another hop this will give him what he needs - a "pk certifite", which will clare him homosexual and therefore exempt om ary the years, gay life has been beg more visible Turkey's big ci.

TURKISH GAYS FACE GRADG TTS TO AVOID ARMY

Caf and clubs wh an openly gay clientele have been openg Istanbul, and last summer's gay pri march - unique the Mlim world - was the largt while there are no specific laws agast homosexualy Turkey, openly gay men are not wele the army. At the same time, they have to "prove" their homosexualy orr to avoid ary, nscripted the late 1990s, very quickly realised that he was not ma for the army.

''I had a fear of guns, '' he ptn, Last summer's gay pri march Istanbul was the largt ever held TurkeyAs a gay man he was also aaid of beg bullied, and after ltle more than a week he plucked up the urage to clare his sexual orientatn to his manr. Sometim, stead of photographs, doctors rely on a "personaly tt" Turkish army refed BBC requts for an terview, but a retired general, Armagan Kuloglu, agreed to gay men the army would e "disciplary problems", he says, and would be impractil creatg the need for "separate facili, separate dormori, showers, trag areas" says that if a gay man keeps his sexualy secret, he n serve - an echo of the US ary's recently dropped Don't Ask Don't Tell policy.

"But when someone out and says he is gay, then the army needs to make sure that he is tly gay, and not simply lyg to eva his mandatory duty to serve the ary. ''The social stigma associated wh homosexualy Turkey is such that outsi the young and urbanised circl big ci like Istanbul and Ankara, is hard to image a man clarg that he's gay when he's not.

GAYS SEEKG ARY EXEMPTN TURKEY NO LONGER NEED TO PROVI VISUAL PROOF OF THEIR HOMOSEXUALY

"Doctors are g unr immense prsure om their manrs to diagnose homosexualy, and they obey, even though there really are no diagnostic tools to terme sexual orientatn, '' says one psychiatrist who formerly worked at a ary hospal.

And next to that, brackets, ''homosexualy'''s ary hospals still fe homosexualy as an illns, takg a 1968 versn of a document by the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn as their people Turkey say wh rentment that gay men are actually lucky, as at least they have one possible route out of ary service - they don't have to spend months the barracks, or face the possibily of beg ployed to fight agast Kurdish for openly gay men, life n be far om is not unmon for employers Turkey to qutn job applints about their ary service - and a pk certifite n mean a job of Gokhan's employers found out about not by askg Gokhan himself but by askg the that, he says, he was bullied. And he don't know what to expect when he appears ont of them he not jt do his ary service and keep his homosexualy a secret?

WorldGay men Turkey seekg exemptn om the untry's mandatory ary service mt prove their homosexualy, the BBC reports, even though many army physicians realize 's medilly impossible to terme sexual orientatn.

A BBC report says gay Turks wishg to avoid ary service mt prove their homosexualy, often by submtg explic photos or answerg qutnnair om a health panel.