Turkey fails to protect gay people

My maid of honor as well as my godchild, I used to take her on forest adventures to find Winnie the Pooh and mica, nature’s looking glass. But she has been a girly girl since she was a baby, still picking pink whenever possible. She likes the look of designer things; don’t show her replica Dolce & Gabana jeans with an upside-down label. Smart, sweet-natured and shy, she speaks her mind on big stuff with brevity and a marked lack of ambiguity, a rare trait in anyone.

She has known - and shared her sexual identity with us - since she was 14. Hosting her here, it was easy to see how lucky she is to live in my hometown Atlanta where the large gay community has deep roots and is openly respected. Like many cities in the U.S., it has a network of gay couples who house and care for young gay people, from newcomers to outcasts.

But America is no model. In the same country lifted up by Harvey Milk and a flourishing gay movement, conservatives' rejection of gay marriage was pivotal in delivering the previous two presidential elections to George Bush. Seemingly more inclusive, President-elect Barack Obama has nonetheless invited Rev. Rick Warren to offer the invocation at his inauguration. Gays and lesbians cannot be members at Warren’s mammoth Saddleback Church. My former boss of five years, Ellen Hershey, a devoted education reformer and mother in San Francisco, wrote a letter to the editor published in the New York Times last week. I read it aloud to my niece. "President-elect Obama should have given this honor to a religious leader who welcomes all Americans equally into the house of worship, no matter how God made them," Ellen wrote.

Telling times
Also during my niece’s visit, Turkey failed to sign the EU-led initiative calling on all countries to ensure that sexual orientation or gender identity forms no "basis for criminal penalties, in particular executions, arrests or detention." A few days ago, the first publicly known transsexual in Adana, Şaban Çelen, was found murdered in the street. Ahmet Yıldız, who represented Turkey in a gay pride march in San Francisco last year, was shot dead this year with a machine gun. In November someone used a shotgun to kill transsexual Dilek Ince in Ankara. No one was charged in these cases. Not long ago, Ege Tanyürek, a young gay man, committed suicide in Adiyaman.

Turkey does not outlaw homosexuality but provisions of the Turkish Criminal Code on "public exhibitionism" and "offences against public morality" are sometimes used to discriminate against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

There’s no telling how many lesbians are hiding under headscarves and in plain sight. Common sense and percentages in places less closeted suggest that gay folks are in most Turkish families and every neighborhood.

In a quiet office in Istanbul, mothers and fathers of gay children have begun meeting with volunteer parents at Lambda Istanbul, a human rights organization defending lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. "At first they are reluctant but their relationships with their children are improving," a representative told me this week in a phone interview.

In a sphere that doesn’t look kindly upon women out past dark, lesbian women no doubt face a special challenge to connect with peopleÉ "or even find someone to talk to," she added.



For a kind word or a good ear, connect with Lamda (0212) 245 7068 www.lambdaistanbul.org. Their

Taksim office is open until 8:00 p.m. Biguti, meaning "hair curler," is a friendly lesbian bar on Balo

Sokak (No. 20, 3 Kat) between Nevizade and Istiklal. In Ankara, contact the Kaos organization at (0312) 230 0358 http://news.kaosgl.com. Internet

searches will reveal many groups in major cities.