Turkey Balks on Widening Rights for Gays

[davidinalameda]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/international/europe/05turkey.ready.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Groups advocating equal rights for gay people in Turkey have long hoped that their country’s bid for membership in the European Union would bring European-style sexual freedoms. But as Turkey has moved closer to conforming with European legal standards and policies, its movement toward legal parity has been halting.

Social opposition to public depictions of homosexuality dissolved in the 1990’s, letting a gay world emerge from hiding, at least in part. The trendy clubs of Istanbul nightlife have gay singers; gay clubs are crowded in the city’s funky Beyoglu district on weekends; and one of the most prominent singers of traditional Turkish music is Bulent Ersoy, a transsexual.

But discrimination and simple distaste for the general topic is widespread.

In a rare disclosure of bias crimes, an Istanbul police official, making a speech before an international conference on global security in 2003, said 36 homicides classified as bias crimes involving sexual orientation had occurred from 1996 through 2003; advocates suspect that the number is not really representative because families are hesitant to bring the cases to court.