GayNZ.com gives a good overview of how LGBT people are treated by the Turkish government.
No surprise, Turkey still has a good bit of work to do in this area:
Police harassment of gay men and transgender sex workers is commonplace, and the government can even ban LGBT conferences, which, however, was one of the chief reasons behind the formation of Lambda Istanbul in 1988. However, the courts are somewhat backward – given that in 1996, the Turkish Supreme Court ruled that a daughter could be removed from her lesbian mother on the basis of parental “immorality.”
And while censorship policy isn’t usually one of Turkey’s strong points, the government isn’t awful when it comes to LGBT themes:
Brokeback Mountain has screened in cinemas, while cable television has carried Will and Grace, Six Feet Under and even Queer as Folk (although whether that is the US or original UK versionis unclear)!
Read the rest of the article here.
