Turkish authorities have launched sweeping raids last weekend targeting LGBTQ+ organizations, venues and activists in Istanbul and other cities. The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says it is protecting children and traditional family values, while rights groups say queer people are facing growing pressure simply for who they are.
Erdogan is living in the past. He is completely out of touch with young people in Turkey — their needs, desires, and aspirations. For as long as he treats poor, downtrodden gay people in this despicable manner, he can forget ever joining the European Union. The European Union is a fair-minded, liberal, supranational union which guarantees people’s human rights; and that INCLUDES people’s right to love whomsoever they please, same-sex or not. This is the atrocious treatment Erdogan meets out to the LGBTQ+ community in Turkey. By the way, the declining birth rate is indeed a problem across the world; but gays are not to blame for that. How many babies does Erdogan realistically believe suppressed gays would ever sire? Taking away gays’ rights is not going to magically increase the birth rate in Turkey!
