Public morality in Turkey

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.

Turkey’s Media Watchdog RTUK Fines Channel for Airing “The Normal Heart” and Gay Kiss

RTUK has issued a 13,600 TL (5,440 USD) fine to the Moviemax Premier channel that broadcasted the movie “The Normal Heart” about the HIV epidemic in 1980s.

Source: “RTÜK’ten “Normal Kalp” filmine ahlâksızlık cezası!”, (“Immorality penalty to the movie “Normal Heart” from RTUK”), kaosGL.org, 4 February 2015, http://kaosgl.org/sayfa.php?id=18635

The Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTUK) issued a 13.600 TL fine to Moviemax Premier channel broadcasting via Digiturk for featuring the Emmy awarded movie “The Normal Heart” using an “+18” smart sign and screening the film after 01:00 am.

The_Normal_Heart_film

RTUK: Media Sponsor of “public morality”!

RTUK’s expert report, which considers this movie as “damaging society’s sense of shame and forcing the limits of public morality”, contains the following statements:

“In the film, two men appear kissing lip to lip and nude. Clips of the love and sexual life of gay men, who are hardly accepted in the social living space, are displayed on screen and are considered cases of damaging society’s sense of shame and forcing the limits of public morality.”

Actors such as Julia Roberts, Mark Ruffalo and Matt Bomer star in the movie adapted from the play with the same name. The movie presents a campaign started against the HIV epidemic that didn’t attract any media attention initially since it was thought that it only affected gay men. The New York Times shared news concerning the epidemic in 1981 with the headline “Rare Cancer Seen In 41 Homosexuals“. The movie “The Normal Heart” draws attention to the fact that information unshared due to social prejudices prevents access to the right to health.

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