Ethnic Men

Today we travel to Turkey in search of hot looking men.



Turkish police confiscate gay LGBT magazine; soccer fans block gay marchers

The full press run of the summer issue of Turkey’s only gay magazine, Kaos GL, was confiscated by police on July 24.

Judge Tekman Savas Nemli of Ankara’s 12th Justice Court approved the seizure at the urging of the Public Prosecutor’s Press Crimes Investigation Bureau. Authorities said they took action for the “protection of general morality.”

The summer issue of the 12-year-old magazine critically analyzed the relationship between homosexuality and pornography and contained articles by Ahmet Tulgar, Fatih Özgüven, Güner Kuban, Hasan Bülent Kahraman, Mehmet Bilal Dede and Meltem Arikan.

“It is the first time that our magazine is banned on the same day it was delivered from the printing house even before it is distributed to bookstores,” editors said in a press release.

“What is attempted to be buried with a siege of ‘general morality’ is the freedom of expression of Turkish national gay and lesbians.”

The magazine bears the name of the activist group that publishes it, the Kaos GL Gay and Lesbian Cultural Research and Solidarity Association.

In Turkey’s fourth-largest city, meanwhile, police and anti-gay soccer fans stopped a GLBT march from taking place on Aug. 6.

Hundreds of members of the fan club of Bursa’s Bursaspor team trapped about 100 members of the transgender and gay group Gökkusagi (Rainbow) inside their headquarters by throwing rocks and threatening to kill them.

The march was planned in reaction to attempts by the provincial governor to shut down the newly formed Rainbow group under laws designed to protect morality, activists said.



Israel and Turkey are the only countries in the Middle East where homosexuality between consenting adults in private is neither illegal nor persecuted by the authorities. As a condition of joining the European Union, Cyprus is being forced to follow suit. In most other Middle Eastern countries, homosexuality is illegal, and is more often than not punishable by death.



TURKISH GAY CULTURE: Turkey's got a traditional bisexual culture taking its root from the history. The gay relationships are usually performed between bisexuals and real gay people. In this culture the bisexuals would never consider themselves as gay - and indeed they are different and they do not look, talk or act like a typical gay person. They play the role of man-side in a gay relationship. Usually, being more feminine/queenly or boyish is a good way of attracting especially the young bisexuals. But of course the preferences vary depending on each person. With the changing culture, western style gay-to-gay relationships are rapidly becoming more widespread but still it is not the mainstream as in the western countries yet.



GAY ACTIVITIES: The gay activities have become more and more visible during the last 20 years. The number of the gay venues has increased rapidly especially during the last 10 years. Taksim district of Beyoglu town on the European side of Istanbul is the center of almost all gay venues. In fact, this district is the center of general local night life. There are many modern or traditional gay clubs, bars, saunas and hamams near the Taksim area. This neighborhood is also frequented by many (mostly bisexual) rent-boys. Some of these boys can really be as handsome as film stars indeed. There are also many clubs for transvestites and transsexuals in Taksim district. Indeed, the gay life of Istanbul is very colorful and vibrant. The first gay and lesbian organization of Turkey is also in Istanbul. Lambda Istanbul



LAW AND REGULATIONS: There is not any law against homosexuality in Turkey. In fact, there is not any law at all concerning homosexuality. Rarely, some general laws can be applied if you make sex in public places. The age of consent is 18. Although there are still some small defects with her democracy, Turkey is the most secular and democratic Muslim country in the world, much more closer to the western culture. The new democratic laws accepted by the parliament in 2002 and 2003 have improved this situation further more. Unfortunately, when a new law was being accepted to punish various discriminations in late 2004, sexual orientation was omitted by the current Government at the last minute. When critics grow, the Minister of Justice said that the phrase that means "discrimination against sexuality" already taking place in the latest regulation would automatically cover "sexual orientation" as well. Even this is can be considered as an improvement, when considering the present government is from the most conservative party that ever came to power in Turkey.