Turkey: A look at their LGBT rights

By joan on Thursday, June 24, 2010 - 22:06

1858. The Tanzimat Era of the Ottoman Empire.

Almost 100 years before England and Germany did, the country that we now know as Turkey decriminalized homosexuality.

Fast forward 152 years. Do we find a gay-friendly utopia, ahead of all of Europe in regards to LGBT rights? Apart from homosexual acts between two consenting adults not being a crime, and the age of consent being the same as for heterosexual ones, the answer is still "no". Turkey ranks on the bottom of ILGA's Rainbow Europe Country Index.

Detail of ILGA Europe's Rainbow Europe Country Index

The facts are these:

• Turkey does not have laws against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
• Turkey does not legally recognize same-sex partnerships.
• Even though it isn't a law, the Turkish Council of State has ruled that homosexuals should not have custody of children.
• Gay and bisexual men are banned from serving in the compulsory military service. (They have to "provide photographic proof" of their homosexuality, and a "small number have had to undergo humiliating medical examinations".)
• The LGBT organization Lambda Istanbul is only legal as long as it isn't "encouraging lesbian, gay, bisexual, transvestite and transsexual behavior with the aim of spreading such sexual orientations". (ILGA Europe)
• 'Honour' killings aren't a thing of the past. Only two years ago, 26-year-old Ahmet Yildiz was shot by his own father for being gay. Eight transsexuals have been killed in the last one and a half years.