Istanbul’s Gay Pride Parade was over before it started this year, after police fired tear gas and rubber bullets into the assembling crowd, while armored vehicles blasted people with water cannons.
Normally, Istanbul is known as one of the few centers of LGBT tolerance in the Islamic world. The city is a progressive, cosmopolitan metropolis that does not see the political turmoil that Americans may associate with the region. Pride events have occurred in the city in the past; but this year, according to Reuters, the government did not want to permit the parade because the event fell during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
A group of parade participants also raised the ire of the Turkish government by carrying banners depicting the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as a fascist, which is depressingly ironic considering the government’s reaction.
Turkey has long struggled to be accepted as a candidate for the European Union, but critics say the country cannot abide by the human rights requirements that are necessary for membership. It should be noted that Turkey is one of the few Islam-dominated countries on Earth that does not criminalize homosexuality, but they did just blast apart a Pride rally, so they have some explaining to do there.
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The NBC news video is below, featuring yet another group of people in the Middle East running from police, which is unfortunately common in American news stories. We certainly hope the cutie in the photo above is OK, because he looks like he’s ready for a fight and that probably would not have ended well in this situation. Also, to watch a protestor get annihilated by a water canon, watch the GIF here. Ouch.
Update: We checked with writers in Istanbul to see if they saw the fracas, and they texted back to say the parade eventually did happen. Members of Turkish Congress who are not in President Erdogan’s party arrived at the scene to form a line between police and the peaceful parade participants.
jd2222248
American take note…….not everyone is celebrating gay love. 🙂
Alpersefa Eray Külcü Türkmen
and here i was thinking that turkey might the first muslim country to legalize gay marriage.. d’oh!
Xzamilio
It’s a shame when countries like this are semi-applauded for not being as regressive and as ass-backwards as their counterparts when it comes to human rights. Yay… congrats, Turkey… you’re not as fucked up as Iran or Syria. It’s times like these that I am happy that we at least live in a civilized country — for the most part — and that these kinds of things are no longer happening. Of course, when you have assholes like some of the red conservative loons in Congress, you can just ignore certain SCOTUS rulings and pretend that the bible is the law of the land.
Billy Budd
The middle ages was over in 1500, but many countries do not seem to have noticed such a fact.
BJ McFrisky
Water cannons and rubber bullets? Sounds tame compared to the rooftop parties taking place across Islam this week where gays were dropped, head-first, to their deaths.
Personally, I’ll take a water cannon squirt over defenestration any day.
@Xzamilio: Agreed, it’s organized religion—east and west—that cripples an intelligent society. Sadly, it won’t go away in our lifetime, so we’re stuck with the consequences it reaps.
RobvR
@jd2222248: Then don’t. Nobody forces you to participate. I don’t celebrate straight love. Should I throw smokebombs at heterosexualswhen when then kiss?
RobvR
This year’s pride may be during Ramadan but that didn’t seem to be a problem last year when that was also the case.
Sansacro
@RobvR: You missed his/her point: he is saying that there are other COUNTRIES that are NOT celebrating gay love.
paulcanning
Istanbul Pride was *not ended by the police’s actions. Action by members of parliament putting their bodies on the line stopped the attack and the parade continued on. I have written about the politician’s heroic actions here http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/06/29/comment-the-new-muslim-lgbt-heroes-of-istanbul/
Also note that Turkey decriminalised homosexuality in 1858.
Avery Alvarez
@jd2222248: Homophobes take note. We’re winning. You’re losing.
Ditamo
@paulcanning: Thank you for clarifying. Makes me happy that it continued and that these politicians were with the LGBT community! I hope the best for Turkey, in all issues.
Jim Guinnessey
Was this a retaliation by the government for Gays in Turkey not being grateful enough to Erdogan or was this another spiteful Islamic attack?
DuMaurier
@Jim Guinnessey: The most common explanation I’m hearing online (from within and outside Turkey) is that it’s retaliation because (it’s assumed, through polls or what I don’t know) gays overall did not support Erdogan’s party in the recent elections.
AtticusBennett
i mentioned this to people who complained about yesterday’s rain: “it’s just water. could be worse. could be bullets”
Daniel-Reader
Remember Stonewall. It was a rebellion, a riot against oppression. A reminder that when we grow tired of all this from governments, we can stop preserving those who harm us. The next chapter has clearly become how bet to deal with government officials who violate human rights – since by definition any such government should no longer be maintained – especially ones that force religion upon people while they line their pockets with cash by selling natural resources and skimming off tax dollars.
Finrod
Given that Turkey’s current President / former Prime Minister is in the process of making himself dictator for life, I’d be surprised if things didn’t get worse. Particularly since he belongs to an Islamist party and was voted in by rural conservatives. Imagine Rick Santorum as US President for the next 20 years. That’s Turkey’s political situation.
polarisfashion
I’m thankful to be in a country where same sex marriage is finally legal. We better not let our gaurd down though because the right wing will do everything they can to keep obstructing and discriminating against us. In some places we still have anti sodomy laws for God’s sake!
Giancarlo85
Erdogan’s entire regime is marked by extreme corruption… and he could see his regime fall because of it.
Blackceo
This is really disappointing. I took my mother on a Mediterranean cruise for her birthday a couple years ago and one of the stops was Istanbul. It was my first time visiting there and it ended up being one of my favorite stops on the cruise. I liked it so much I’ve gone back twice since that cruise. It is an absolutely beautiful city with great architecture and shopping, not to mention some fine ass Turkish men. But, even though it is one of the more tolerant predominantly Islam practicing areas of the world, it’s still quite “traditional”.
I mean I am not much into PDA at all and I typically don’t like visiting a place where if I wanted to walk hand and hand with my fiance down the street I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable about it, but I was much more cognizant of that while in Istanbul, especially when we ventured out of “touristy” areas and at night. So Im not too surprised this happened here.
RobvR
@Sansacro: Thank you for correcting me. It’s just that I’m so used to people defending everything just because it’s in Turkey (there’s a big Turkish minority where I’m from) that I probably assumed the worst and didn’t read the message as well as I should.
RobvR
@jd2222248: My apologies for misreading (is that even good English?) your comment. The explanation is given my previous comment to Sansacro.
Saint Law
@BJ McFrisky: You couldn’t post less sense if ISIS dropped you on your head from a high building.
Billysees
” A group of parade participants also raised the ire of the Turkish government by carrying banners depicting the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as a fascist, which is depressingly ironic considering the government’s reaction. ”
That statement from the article may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. I’m sure that Turkey’s LGBT community wants and needs at least simple respect. But if they don’t show it themselves publicly, then maybe that’s why all the water and bullets.
princedeligne
I’m not at all surprised by this. Turkish culture is not accepting of homosexuality and as a country it is far from European. While it may be a beautiful country, its not one I’m curious about visiting .
Billysees
@princedeligne:
” Turkish culture is not accepting of homosexuality… ”
They can learn to accept LGBT folks as much as possible, as the times will allow.
Next time, the parade organizers should make certain that ‘NO’ political content is represented in any future pride events.