against the laws of morality

indeed!

good posting on the blog of doug ireland

September 26, 2005
TURKEY MOVES TO BAN ITS LARGEST GAY GROUP
Turkey last week initiated legal action to ban its leading gay rganization, Kaos GL (whose website has an English-language section.) And the oldest Turkish gay group, Lambda Istanbul -- which this year sponsored a Gay Pride March in Istanbul (at right) that drew 150 participants -- may soon find itself targeted as well.
Selahattin Ekremoglu, deputy governor of the Turkish capital Ankara, on September 15 wrote a letter to the gay and lesbian group Kaos GL that said a court procedure had been opened to dissolve the organization. He claimed that the name and regulations of the group violated a provision in the Turkish Civil Code that forbids "establishing any organization that is against the laws and principles of morality." This government ukase contradicts the long Turkish literary gay tradition -- notably in the divan poetry much admired in the Ottoman Empire of the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries from poets like Hafiz and Muhammed Ibn Hassan Al Nawaji -- of which the openly gay Turkish poet-novelist-scenarist Murathan Murgan is the most prominent modern inheritor. (Above left, a 14th century Turkish painting.)The International Lesbian and Gay Association denounced the move to shut down Kaos GL last week in a statement, and today Human Rights Watch issued a similar protest . "Turkey has a long record of suppressing civil society and harassing human rights defenders," said Scott Long, director of HRW's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Project. "This dangerous new move shows that old habits die hard, and calls into question recent advances in rights protections." ..........

...............The Turkish tourist industry harvests a lot of Western and gay tourist dollars each year. That's why an effective way to protest is to write to Ambassador O. Faruk Logoglu (left), Embassy of the Turkish Republic, 2525 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20008, or e-mail him at contact@turkishembassy.org -- and, whether you're gay or straight, tell Ambassador Logoglu that you won't visit Turkey as a tourist and spend your money there until it stops its anti-gay actions like its move to shut down Kaos GL.