Gays in turkey

It is not uncommon for employers in Turkey to question job applicants about their military service - and a pink certificate can mean a job rejection. Sometimes, instead of photographs, doctors rely on a "personality test". However, the possibility causes the military a lot of anxiety.

And next to that, in brackets, ''homosexuality''. Last summer's gay pride march in Istanbul was the largest ever held in Turkey. Gay men say the precise nature of the evidence demanded depends on the whim of the military doctor or commander. But it was a terrible experience, he says,.

The photographs satisfied the military doctors. On Gokhan's pink certificate, his status reads: ''psychosexual disorder''. Turkey's military hospitals still define homosexuality as an illness, taking a version of a document by the American Psychiatric Association as their guide.

Check out our guide to travel in Turkey for LGBT+ folks. The social stigma associated with homosexuality in Turkey is such that outside the young and urbanised circles in big cities like Istanbul and Ankara, it is hard to imagine a man declaring that he's gay when he's not.

Ahmet hopes this will give him what he needs - a "pink certificate", which will declare him homosexual and therefore exempt from military service. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals are among the most vulnerable asylum seekers and refugees in Turkey today.

At the same time, they have to "prove" their homosexuality in order to avoid military service. Still, Turkey scores low on the LGBTQ+ acceptance meter compared to the rest of Europe. LGBT Rights in Turkey: homosexuality, gay marriage, gay adoption, serving in the military, sexual orientation discrimination protection, changing legal gender, donating blood, age of consent, and more.

Over the years, gay life has been becoming more visible in Turkey's big cities. According to one research, in Turkey, religion plays a greater intersecting role with gender and sexuality than most Western countries, resulting in alarming levels of institutionalized discrimination.

In Turkey, homosexuality has been decriminalized, and transgender people have been able to legally change their gender since However, there are still legal challenges, and discrimination protections have not yet been legislated fully for sexual orientation and gender identity.

LGBTQIA+ travelers should be aware that while Turkey is nominally secular, it can be very conservative and negative attitudes towards queer individuals are common. Cafes and clubs with an openly gay clientele have been opening in Istanbul, and last summer's gay pride march - unique in the Muslim world - was the largest ever.

The city's famous Istiklal Avenue is home to many of Istanbul's top gay bars and clubs. They can show them at my village, to my parents, my relatives. He says that if a gay man keeps his sexuality secret, he can serve - an echo of the US military's recently dropped Don't Ask Don't Tell policy.

What's the situation with LGBTQ+ rights in Turkey? But proving homosexuality is a humiliating ordeal. Turkey is gradually becoming more welcoming to the LGBTQ+ community, with several cities leading the way in promoting inclusivity. He had gone prepared with explicit photographs of himself having sex with another man, having heard that it would be impossible to get out of military service without them.

But while there are no specific laws against homosexuality in Turkey, openly gay men are not welcome in the army. Military service is mandatory for all Turkish men - they can only escape it if they are ill, disabled or homosexual. Gokhan was handed his pink certificate and exempted from military service.

Some people in Turkey say with resentment that gay men are actually lucky, as at least they have one possible route out of military service - they don't have to spend months in the barracks, or face the possibility of being deployed to fight against Kurdish militants.

He was then asked to provide a picture of himself dressed as a woman. As a gay man he was also afraid of being bullied, and after little more than a week he plucked up the courage to declare his sexual orientation to his commander. [45] Their access to rights and services is limited in Turkey as a result of anti-LGBTQ sentiments of state actors and the general public.

Because somebody holds those photographs. Openly gay men in the army would cause "disciplinary problems", he says, and would be impractical creating the need for "separate facilities, separate dormitories, showers, training areas". Ahmet, a young man in his 20s, told officials he was gay at the first opportunity after he was called up, as he and other conscripts underwent a health check.

Gokhan, conscripted in the late s, very quickly realised that he was not made for the army. Istanbul is a vibrant metropolis that features a thriving gay scene. Unlike many majority-Muslim nations, homosexuality is legal in Turkey, and despite political hate speech, tolerance is often the norm in urban areas like Istanbul.