Yesterday I wrote this in another vicious Islamic homophobic post: "I urge members of the gay community to start protesting the sharia and get into the fight for freedom. Gay Atlas readers will weigh in in the comments section, but that is not enough, not nearly enough. It's anecdoctal. We need a movement -- a real movement -- in the gay community to vocally and meaningfully oppose the most extreme and brutal ideology on the face of the earth."
Atlas readers responded, and we are organizing a SIOA Gay chapter -- interested? Email me at writeatlas@aol.com.
Sedef Cakmak, a member of the gay rights lobby group Lambda, said. "I feel helpless: we are trying to raise awareness of gay rights in this country, but the more visible we become, the more we open ourselves up to this sort of attack."
Father & Uncle Suspected of Turkish Gay Teen’s ’Honor Killing' Edge, September 6, 2012
The LGBT community of a southeastern province of Turkey is accusing a teenage boy’s father and uncle of killing the teen because he was gay, the Turkish newspaper the Hurriyet Daily News reported.
The newspaper identifies the 17-year-old boy as "R.A." and reports that the LGBT community in Diyarbakir claims his "rich and powerful" father and uncle murdered the young boy because he was gay and then tried to cover the incident up.
Diyarbakir is one of the largest cities in Turkey and is on the the bank of the River Tigris.
R.A. had been living with a friend’s family because he had allegedly "been exposed to violence" by his own family due to his sexuality, the publication notes. But the boy’s uncle physically removed R.A. from his friend’s home and R.A and his father then got into an argument. His father allegedly ended up shooting him 14 times, then he and the boy’s uncle got rid of the body.
Since the incident, which occurred last month, the two men have been arrested for their role in the killing.
A member of the LGBT community told the newspaper that the boy’s family tried to cover up the murder.
"The family wanted to cover up the murder which happened one month ago because they were a rich and powerful tribal family," an unknown member of Turkey’s LGBT community said. "They wanted the police to hide the incident. We are subjected to violence, but there is no place where we can make a complaint or search for our rights. Police insult and swear at us, doctors make fun of us."
