BY NATASHA BARSOTTI — A Vocativ post on the 18-day-old, anti-government protests in Istanbul's Gezi Park focuses on the quite-visible queer presence at the forefront of the thousands-strong resistance.

Prominent among the images that emerged from the protest, initially prompted by a bid to stave off the redevelopment of the park, was the rainbow flag, Oray Egin wrote.

Interestingly, when members of an ultra-nationalist group tried to attack a trans Pride march in Istanbul's Taksim Square (near Gezi Park's location) last June, they threw stones and bottles at participants who were waving rainbow flags. The youth wing, known as Alperen Ocaklari, had gathered in the same square to remember fallen Turkish soldiers and chanted "the only flag allowed here is the Turkish flag, not that piece of fabric." 

But Egin says it's not surprising, despite the history of discrimination queers have faced, and continue to face, in Turkey, that they are a significant force in what has been dubbed Occupy Gezi, as the park had been their turf at night, something that's highlighted in gay guidebooks.

Egin quotes fashion designer and activist Barbaros Sansal, a park visitor for 50 years, as saying, it’s the "most important meeting point and cruising area for gays in Turkey." 

Even before the more recent plans of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government to raze the park, gays had been forced to move out over time.

Egin writes: "First, the local government in Istanbul destroyed the bushes in the park, so there wouldn’t be blind hook-up spots for gays. And starting last year, the police made its presence known, regularly carding whomever passed through."

With the push-back against the government's plans, the queer presence became more visible again, and according to Egin, a "different sort of unity" emerged, with gays and lesbians establishing connections with "unlikely friends," including soccer fans and a conservative group called the Anti-Capitalist Muslims. 

The US-based advocacy organization, GLAAD, also noted in an early June piece that queer organizations, "often ignored, sometimes aggressively persecuted," were applauded at one point, and shared food and sold T-shirts.

Egin notes that queer groups who saw anti-gay graffiti around the park at the start of protests, painted over the slurs, and took the opportunity to educate people about homophobia. 

It's a marked difference from some of the stories coming out of Turkey last year.

In September, The Hürriyet Daily News reported that a teenager was allegedly murdered by family members because of his sexual orientation in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir.

The 17-year-old, referred to by the intials RA, had reportedly sought refuge at a friend's house after being exposed to violence by his family but was forcibly removed from the house by an uncle, the report alleges. "The boy reportedly had an argument with his father, after which the latter allegedly shot his son 14 times before he and his brother deposited the body by the side of the road," the daily Cumhuriyet reported. The boy's father and uncle were later arrested in connection with the murder.

Gay Star News quoted Turkish advocacy organizations as saying that such murders — dubbed honour killings because of the negative social stigma attached to homosexuality — are underreported.

"LGBT activists . . . often object to the term [honour killing] stating that it is nothing short of murder, objecting to its classification as a special form of 'killing,'" Gay Star News notes.

Then in November, a new Turkish Armed Forces penalty regulation draft said gays will be discharged from the army as punishment for their "lifestyle choices," the Hürriyet Daily News also reported.

The report noted it would be the first time in the country's history that homosexuality is clearly listed as an unnatural occurrence in army regulations. Queer advocacy groups criticized the move, calling it a violation of human rights, as "an individual’s personal life choice has nothing to do with their ability to perform military duties."

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI — The deportation order of a lesbian asylum seeker in the UK was cancelled today, June 18, mere hours before she would have boarded a flight back to her native Uganda, Pink News reports.

Human rights advocates said Happy Rwehobuganzi, who had been detained for four months, faced homophobic persecution if she returned to the African country. According to the report, Rwehobuganzi made several applications and appeals to the UK Border Agency (UKBA) and the High Court that were turned down because there was not enough evidence to prove that she is a lesbian. In appealing on Rwehobuganzi's behalf, her supporters cited the case of another lesbian asylum seeker, Jackie Nanyonjo, who died in Uganda after she was deported to her country in January.

 

According to Pink News, spokespeople for Movement for Justice by Any Means Necessary (MFJ) said Nanyonjo, who died on March 8, strenuously fought her deportation order, became ill in the process, and did not receive timely medical attention when she was handed over to Ugandan authorities at Entebbe International Airport. “When family members finally met her, long after the flight had landed, Jackie was in terrible pain and vomiting blood; they rushed her to a clinic, but in a country with widespread poverty and limited medical facilities they were unable to get the medical attention Jackie needed," MFJ said in a statement. 

The UKBA and the Home Office have denied human rights advocates' claims that they frequently deport queer asylum seekers who face persecution in their countries of origin, Pink News says.

In February, lawyer S Chelvan called for reform of the way the UKBA handles queer asylum cases at the Law Society’s 11th annual Stonewall Lecture.

Chelvan told The Huffington Post there is "an embedded culture of disbelief. We say immediately, ‘We don’t believe you, you go away and prove it.’ It’s a clear breach of human rights, it’s inhuman and degrading."

He said the high levels of suspicion asylum seekers face means that some even feel pressured to show border-agency authorities sex tapes.

"No court would ask a claimant to provide a film. But gay asylum seekers feel they have to go to these lengths," Chelvan said. 

"When we are deciding these claims we have to go out of the bedroom, into the outside world. It's in the outside world a lesbian or gay asylum seeker faces the real risk of harm," he argued.

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI — With the Russian State Duma's overwhelming approval of a nationwide anti-gay bill, there has been an uptick in concern about what queer athletes and fans can expect when that country hosts next year's Winter Olympics and the World Cup in 2018.

The legislation still must have its day in the upper house and then make its way to President Vladimir Putin's desk for his signature — steps that are seen as mere formalities — but activists and other observers are wondering what, if any, action the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and FIFA, soccer's international governing body, will take to ensure that spectators and athletes are protected from its sweeping measures. 

The current bill bans so-called propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations to minors and in the media -- and also targets foreigners. It characterizes the propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations as “spreading the information in order to form non-traditional sexual desires in children, describing such relations as attractive, promoting the distorted understanding of social equality of traditional and non-traditional relations and also unwanted solicitation of information that could provoke interest to such relations."  

Foreigners who flout the bill face the prospect of 15 days in prison and deportation.

There were at least 23 out athletes at London's 2012 Summer Olympics, which also boasted a Pride House for queer athletes, fans and supporters to view and participate in Games-related events. Vancouver established the first Pride House when it hosted the Winter Games in 2010. Russian officials, backed by court rulings, early on rejected the idea of a Pride House for the Sochi Olympics next year. 

Russian news source RIA Novosti reported last year that the Sochi appeals court had upheld a lower court decision denying registration of such a space, ruling that it would “undermine public morals and is at odds with national policy on the family, motherhood and children.” 

Speed skater Blake Skjellerup is quoted in a February story on USA Today as saying he was concerned about the legislation that had at that point passed a first reading in the State Duma by a vote of 388 to one. “I don’t want to have to tone myself down about who I am. That wasn’t very fun and there’s no way I’m going back in the closet. I just want to be myself and I hate to think that being myself would get me in trouble.”

Soccer player Megan Rapinoe, who was on the gold-medal-winning American women's soccer team at the London Games, noted that her girlfriend was with her last summer. "If I was just a gay fan going to Sochi, I don't know. If the law passes, I would definitely be breaking the law. Hopefully it won't deter gay athletes from being who they are."

As for the World Cup, a ThinkProgress report points out that "it’s hard to imagine there wasn’t at least one gay player" in South Africa's edition of the event in 2010, or that there won't be any taking the field when Brazil hosts it next year.

In a June 12 piece, ThinkProgress says that both the IOC and FIFA have yet to address the potential impact of the all-but-enacted bill head-on.

FIFA is taking steps to clamp down on racism, passing an anti-racism resolution with a 99 percent majority at a congress in Mauritius. Teams could face relegation or expulsion from competition for serious incidents of that form of discrimination, the BBC reported at the end of last month.

But FIFA president Sepp Blatter appeared to be more than a bit reticent when asked about the issue of homophobia, specifically in relation to the staging of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where homosexuality is criminalized.

"What you are speaking about, I do not think it is part of racism, perhaps this is going into ethics and morals," a June 1 BBC report quoted him as saying.

Blatter added, "This, I think, is not the time being to bring it now. If you bring it to my attention then I should have a look on that. But I cannot give you a definite answer." 

In 2010, Blatter advised gay fans wishing to attend the World Cup that they "should refrain from any sexual activities," a stance for which he later apologized.

In comments to Gay Star News (GSN), the chair of the Gay Football Supporters' Network (GFSN), Chris Basiurski, says he approached Blatter about homophobia concerns, noting that the FIFA president was adamant on the point that the football community is "for everybody."

Basiurski told GSN, "While the risks of Russia may not be quite as legally difficult as Qatar, where gay sex is outright illegal, the consequences could be quite tough. Anyone going there and raising a red flag could be subject to abuse, physically assaulted and not protected by authorities. It’s concerning FIFA has chosen these countries where it’s on the table." 

Basiurski added that the gay community needs to pay attention to future bids to stage the World Cup.  

Speaking to the UK's Morning Star, Louise Englefield, campaign director for the anti-homophobia group Football v Homophobia, called the Russian bill a “depressing” assault on the rights of queer people.

“Firstly, it’s terrible news for LGBT Russians and there are plenty of them who are active in sport. There are a number of LGBT sports groups in Russia and they are going to have to work in this environment,"she said.

Referring to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Englefield added, "How far will this legislation go? If you were a gay athlete and took part in Sochi, would you be in trouble if you draped yourself in a rainbow flag? What would come of fans who did the same thing? Is that propaganda that is promoting homosexuality according to this legislation?”
 

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI — Apple withdrew it after international outcry, but a gay-cure app condemned by psychotherapists as dangerous is still available at Google Play, Pink News reports.

The app, called Setting Captives Free, promotes a 60-day course that claims to cure homosexuality. “Despite what you may have heard elsewhere, you do not have a ‘homosexual gene,’ nor were you born this way with no hope of freedom," the app claims. "You can be set free from the bondage of homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ and the cross!”

Gaylesta, The LGBTQ Psychotherapist Association of the Greater San Francisco Bay Area, is calling on Google to pull it, the report says.

The association's statement reads, “Gaylesta has been outspoken and active in exposing the dangers of so called ‘reparative therapy.’ Homosexuality is not a condition or disorder that requires treatment. Striving to treat what is not a disorder is not therapy, it is professionalized homophobia. It is dangerous, and it is a threat to all LGBTQ people.

"Individuals who have undergone these treatments often have a significantly larger chance of becoming self destructive and suicidal," the statement continues. "It is unconscionable to think that a smartphone application could be made available to the general public to help ‘treat’ homosexuality. This app poses a serious public health risk, putting the lives of unsuspecting people, including minors, at risk of harm, by telling them that their innate sexual orientation is wrong and needs to be changed. We ask that all smartphone application stores (including Google Play and iTunes) remove these applications from their stores immediately and that they further make it a policy to disallow such applications from being available in the future.” 

Pink News notes that an All Out petition, calling on Google Play to ban the app, had garnered close to its target of 150,000 signatures.

Google is reportedly looking into the complaints about the app.

A number of ex-gay movement leaders have also distanced themselves from the "change-is-possible" mantra, including former chairman of Exodus John Paulk and Exodus International head Alan Chambers.

In May last year, none other than retired psychiatrist Robert Spitzer retracted claims he'd made in a controversial 2001 study that "highly motivated" gays and lesbians could change their sexual orientation. "In retrospect, I have to admit I think the critiques are largely correct," Spitzer said.

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI — For 70 minutes, rugby fan Hannah Spyksma endured the homophobic taunts three other fans were spewing at players during an All Blacks-France test at Eden Park stadium last weekend.

When she did decide to speak up and asked them to stop, the three men allegedly began to target her with anti-gay slurs and even tapped her on the head and told her such language was part of the game, Pink News reports.

Spyksma's brother, who was at the game with her, put his arm around her, says Spyksma, who identifies as queer, but adds she felt alone in confronting the men because no one else in the crowd backed her up. 

Referring to the country's recent legalization of gay marriage, Spyksma says that's only a first step on the road to equality. "As long as that kind of language is still used, tolerated and condoned, then we’ve got a long way to go." 

According to Pink News, Tracy Morgan, a spokesperson for Eden Park, said patron harassment is not condoned, and the men could have been thrown out of the stadium. But Morgan is also quoted as saying that unless others around the men were also offended, the use of homophobic slurs alone may not have been a good enough reason to get them evicted, since it wasn't the stadium’s place to ”be the PC police." 

“If she’s saying that she was isolated and that it shouldn’t be acceptable, it’s not our job – I don’t believe – to try to move the cultural morals of society," Morgan added.

There is a text service at the stadium that allows people to report antisocial or offensive behaviour anonymously, the report notes. 

In the aftermath of the incident, Spyksma, who is a freelance journalist, wrote an open letter to her tormenters in The New Zealand Herald, calling "bullshit on your mindless slurs at Eden Park last Saturday night."

Spkysma wrote that the three were "on the ball" when they admitted they were "arrogant, ignorant and rather homophobic," adding that while she's all for "a bit of banter," enduring 80 minutes of the men calling match officials, players and coaches gay was "just degrading." 

She added, "It sends a message that in New Zealand, using homophobic taunts is the best way to communicate anger and frustration in sport. Ultimately what it says is that you can't possibly be any good if you are gay. And that hurts.

"Bigoted slurs are not a necessary part of any sporting game and I will not be made to feel like I should just go home if I point that out. How are we ever supposed to have an openly gay All Black or Black Fern when being gay is equated with being useless on the field? I for one would never suggest outing someone in New Zealand's mainstream sporting arena because the behaviour of my fellow patriots the other night is an indicator that we just aren't ready for that."

Noting that the men muttered that she must be a lesbian after she confronted them, Spyksma wrote that it's news to her that "speaking out against homophobia is a marker of sexuality."

"As for telling a lesbian that they should go home if they can't handle the word faggot, well perhaps the men behind me should have checked the demographics of who likes watching the footy," she added. "I'm sure they'd find a lot of loyal All Blacks fans are women who identify as being lesbian."