Turkey's LGBT + protesters marched despite ban
GAYLES.TV.- Rubber bullets, tear gas… Being a lesbian, gay, trans, bisexual or queer is not easy at Türkiye. For the third consecutive year police authorities have banned the demonstration of Pride claiming "security reasons". They wanted to protect the integrity of the participants with arrests, bullets and gases.
The turks LGTB + were not intimidated after the ban and on Sunday went out to claim their rights. He Pride It is held in Istanbul since 2003 and little by little the number of protesters has increased. «In 2009 we only went to 200 people. The police cornered us and sent us with tanks. This year we are 5.000. People are slowly losing in fear, but there is still much to dor », explains Olivier Cerri, French activist known by the nickname of Kaptain Bear. In 2014 it gathered around 15.000 people and it was the following year, in 2015, when it was banned for the first time. As this time the police He launched tear gas to disperse the participants. For this reason, the associations of the group decided to cancel the march in 2016. But this year they were not willing to continue lagging behind. Under the motto «They will not shut us up, we exist»They demonstrated in defiance of the authorities. They did not want fear to overcome them.
Compared with other Muslim countries, Turkey offers more freedom to homosexuals, although a recent study of the University of Bahçesehir indicates that the 60% of Turks would not want to have a gay neighbor. And you can not live in terror. According Amnesty International 16 homosexuals were killed in Turkey last year.
Source: El País
GAYLES.TV
Online TV
