Wayne Besen - Author, Activist, Columnist, Public Speaker

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Police have been "forced" to cancel a planned demonstration by gay rights activists in Bursa after anti-gay protesters took to the streets to scupper the march. Hundreds of football club Bursaspor supporters lined the route of the planned demonstration and threw stones at the offices of the local homosexual association, Gokkusagı (Rainbow).

Rainbow's president, Omer Evren, speaking at a press conference, said they would file a complaint against the Bursaspor club, promising to stage an even bigger march next year.

"The police could have taken the required measures, but they didn't. They even sought to dissuade us from holding the event," Emir Birant, an activist from the Ankara-based KAOS-GL gay rights advocacy group, told Agence France-Presse by telephone from Bursa. "There was absolutely no help from the authorities, which clearly demonstrates how homosexuals are regarded in Turkey," Birant said.

If Turkey wants to join the western world, they must stop such terror tactics and bullying of its gay citizens. There is no place in the civilized world for such barbaric and hateful behavior. The government must help fulfill Birant's promise of a bigger and better Pride celebration next year.

9 Comments:

exactly why europe should think twice before they let these islamic barbarians into the union.
posted by Anonymous, at 8/09/2006 10:29 AM

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
posted by Anonymous, at 8/09/2006 11:02 AM

"How are you going to stop these terrorists from doing this without being George W. Bush?"

Questioning,
And what, EXACTLY, has George W. Bush done to stop this?
posted by Matthew, at 8/09/2006 3:50 PM

Obviously there's not much that we can do at this point, but more violence and bombing and torture as I'm sure a *giggler* like you would do, would only make matters worse, as anyone with a brain can see is happening in Iraq Israel and Lebanon.
posted by Anonymous, at 8/09/2006 3:52 PM

Anon 3:52...

If the answer here to my question is: "We should just talk.", the collective giggling you hear from Ankara and Baghdad would be thunderous...
posted by Anonymous, at 8/09/2006 4:21 PM

To add insult to injury, check out the link I've posted regarding Iraq gays who are fleeing their country because of persecution and/or death. So much for Bush's democracy in Iraq, its an outrage. You can bet we won't hear about this in the mainstream media, let alone on t.v. unilike the UK.

Robert, NYC.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1838222,00.html
posted by Anonymous, at 8/10/2006 8:01 AM

Wayne, why'd you have to put your tinfoil hat on and remove the post at 11:02 AM?

You don't have a clue how to stop this anti-gay violence, do you?

Here's how you do it...the best thing to eliminate these prejudices is a combination of free enterprise/free markets. (The latter is key.) Case in point...Forsyth County, Georgia immediately above Atlanta. In the early 90s there you had stupid KKK marches.

Now, you've got so many minorities there it IS funny.

Or Benton County (Bentonville) Arkansas. 20 years ago you had a climate so hostile to black people that the county was thought to be unsafe for minorities after dark.

Now, go into any local Wal-Mart (even the ones in the most formerly "hick" areas) and you'll CONSTANTLY find black, asians, (India)ns, hispanics, even gay men with Louis Vuitton shoulderbags. BTW, an openly gay clerk (wearing rainbow triangle pins and "I (heart) Ashton Kutcher" buttons on his blue vest) at the Wal-Mart Supercenter directly across from that company's headquarters told me he got compliments and NEVER any complaints about those buttons.

What do both of those counties have in common? One, they had and still have a bunch of Baptists in their midst, though "Baptist" hardly ever equals "KKK". But they also have had a TIDAL WAVE of money and the people who spend it, generated by a free marketplace. Such waves tend to wash away nearly all overt prejudices wherever they hit land.

Now, how you clear the path for such an event in the countries of the Islamic world is a good question indeed.
posted by Anonymous, at 8/10/2006 12:03 PM

I was reading Doug Ireland's blog about what is going on in Turkey. Whatever is going in Bursa is similar to what just happened in Riga. Not only they are homophobes, but some are pathetic soccer hooligans as well. Looks like Ataturk's secular Turkey is being undermined by these assholes.
Also, Turkey is becoming the new Poland with the government crackdowns and other fascist crap.

A president of a local tradesmen association said this bullshit remark:
"Bursa is the city of Ottoman sultans and religious men. This city does not deserve to be humiliated by these people who are outside society. We will stop them from marching. If the governors and politicians do not want these people to be lynched, they must make their attitude clear."

1. Bursa was the city of Ottomans until they were defeated in World War I.

2. Looks like Turkey and America have one similarity: religious fascists trying to take over the secular government and treat those in the "outside society" like shit for not conforming.

"General morality" my ass.

Blood From Machines
posted by Anonymous, at 8/10/2006 4:38 PM

I apologize for comments I made directly toward you above, Wayne.

They were out of anger, and were completely uncalled for. If THAT post gets removed, it is quite deserved.
posted by Anonymous, at 8/13/2006 8:11 PM