Pride–a protest, a celebration and a force for good enabling LGBTQIA+ people to demand their rights–is being banned in Turkey. Send a message of support to LGBTI people and their allies in Türkiye now.

In Türkiye, Pride faces a battle on two major fronts: LGBTI rights are under increasing attack, while the right to protest has been severely limited for years. Since 2015, Pride events have been systemically banned in Türkiye, preventing LGBTI people from demanding their rights.

Since 2015, the government has executed an extensive campaign to break up LGBT rights public events, including Pride marches and, in Ankara, all LGBT events and public LGBT-related discussions from 2017 to 2019. Not only have Pride bans intensified (more Prides have been banned and unprecedented numbers of participants detained) but in numerous instances, the authorities have pursued legal action against activists and organizations for supporting LGBTI rights and detained journalists reporting on Pride events. This is also coinciding with state endorsement of virulent anti-LGBTI+ groups and their protests as seen during the 18 September march in Istanbul.

These anti-LGBT efforts have largely been undertaken in the name of protecting the public from immorality and “perversion”, In March 2021, after Türkiye’s withdrawal Istanbul Convention, officials tried to justify the decision

“as the Convention was hijacked by groups to normalize homosexuality”. Homophobic government statements like these have reverberating effects in the public sphere, where LGBT rights groups have documented a dramatic rise in anti-LGBT rhetoric in the news.

Even now in 2023, threats of crack down on Pride persists, prominent figures are ramping up anti-LGBTI rhetoric, with increasing discrimination against LGBTI people being observed.

So now, more than ever, we must take a firm stance against these human rights violations.