gay marriage

Turkey’s Former Minister of Interior: ‘Gay marriage is the destruction of humanity’

The former Minister of Interior and current candidate for parliament running with the AKP [Turkey’s ruling party] from Erzurum, opposed gay marriage on TGRT TV News program and said that “the tribe of Lot” was destroyed because of this.

Source: “Efkan Ala da hedef gösterme peşinde: Eşcinsel evlilik insanlığın helakıdır” (“Efkan Ala is also intent on pointing people out as targets: ‘Gay marriage is the destruction of humanity’”), Birgün, 2 June 2015, http://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/efkan-ala-da-hedef-gosterme-pesinde-escinsel-evlilik-insanligin-helakidir-82104.html

The former Minister of Interior and current candidate for parliament running with the AKP [Turkey’s ruling party] from Erzurum, opposed gay marriage on TGRT TV News program and said that “the tribe of Lot” was destroyed because of this.

Pointing Barış Sulu, the HDP’s Eskişehir LGBTI MP candidate, as a target[1], he said:

“For God’s sake, look at these candidates that the HDP put forth. I can’t even bring myself to say it. They have put forth candidates that our citizen [sic] cannot accept.”

Efkan Ala continued:

“Our Kurdish brothers are religious people. For God’s sake, look at these candidates that the HDP put forth. I can’t even bring myself to say it. They have put forth candidates that our citizen [sic] cannot accept. I mean let me say this, they have put forth a transvestite candidate. They put forth homosexuals as candidates. In its election declaration, the HDP says that these [sic] will be afforded all sorts of rights, of the right of a man to marry and be with a man and of the right of a woman to marry and be with a woman. We are saying that we are against such things on topics that our morality our tradition rejects. What is this, a man marrying a man, a woman marrying a woman. The tribe of Lot was destroyed because of this[1]. That is, this is the destruction of humanity.”


[1] Turkey has a history of political violence, hate crimes, and political assassinations that followed a governmental authority figure and/or mainstream media singling out a person or a group out as rightfully injurable with impunity. -Trans.

On Gay Marriage: “If you had raped a five-year-old child, we would have been able to stomach it, but this we cannot!”

Ayşe Arman, “Beş yaşındaki bir çocuğa tecavüz etseydiniz sindirebilirdik ama bunu sindiremeyiz!” (“If you had raped a five-year-old child, we would have been able to stomach it, but this we cannot!”) Hürriyet, 20 October 2014, http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/kelebek/hayat/27408226.asp

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Death threats after gay wedding

Source: “Eşcinsel düğünün ardından ölüm tehdidi yağdı,” (“Death threats after gay wedding”), Radikal, 13 October 2014, http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/escinsel_dugunun_ardindan_olum_tehdidi_yagdi-1218459

Following Turkey’s first gay wedding, the couple lost their home and their jobs and began receiving death threats. There are women among those who have been threatening the couple.

Ekin-Emrullah-Wedding

Turkey’s first gay “wedding” turned the couple’s lives into a nightmare. University students[1] Ekin Keser and Emrullah Tüzün recently got married in Istanbul through an unofficial wedding ceremony. Hürriyet’s Fırat Alkaç reports that the couple’s lives became entirely distraught following the ceremony.

Tüzün (28) said, “My family and my siblings are threatening to kill me. People around us began to express negative reactions as soon as our wedding was publicized. Our landlord kicked us out of our apartment. I used to work as a waiter in Kadıköy and I got laid off. Ekin is a university student so he is not working. We have no income and are experiencing hardship.”

Women threaten too

Twenty one year old Ekin Keser is unable to step foot at his university because of ongoing threats. Keser stated that he is receiving death threats on social media and added the following: “I am originally from Antakya. People have been threatening me for denigrating Antakya. My family already knew I was gay but they did not receive the news of my getting married well at all. Emrullah and I have been friends for three years. We were already living together. We got married as a step towards breaking taboos. We saw that those homophobic people who threaten us are after all a minority. Some of them are women… Ninety five percent of the people around us congratulated us. They were supportive. Now, all we want is for our families and our immediate circles to give us a break.”

 

[1] The news story later mentions that Ekin Keser is a university student and that Emrullah Tüzün is not. However, at this point both were referred to as students. The translation sticks to the original news content.

Two white lilies in the midst of blue: Ekin and Emrullah

Source: Emre Korlu, “Maviliğin içinde iki beyaz lale: Ekin ile Emrullah” (“Two white lilies in the midst of blue: Ekin and Emrullah”) Kaos GL, 23 September 2014, http://kaosgl.org/sayfa.php?id=17571

[Click here for an update on this news item.]

This is the story of a gay couple who recently wed in Istanbul in an alternative ceremony not officially recognized by the government: Confronted with a heterosexist system, we did not stay in the closet.

Ekin-Emrullah-Wedding

In their white tuxedos, they go well with blue. With a terrific smile on their faces, they could paint this country with dreams if you let them. Now you will read about it. It is not one of my stories; it’s a story of love.

On 2 September 2014, Ekin Keser and Emrullah Tüzün crowned their life together with a wedding. What made their wedding different from others is the fact that they are a gay couple.

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