A Jihad for Love

Lately I have been hooked on the absolute godsend that is 4oD. I mean, what could possibly be more fun than catching up on episodes of the Inbetweeners or Misfits? Or broadening one's horizons with shows such as Queer As Folk? (I was too young to even know of its existence when it was first broadcast).

This morning, having woken up at quarter to 6 and looking for something new to watch, I happened to come across "A Jihad for Love". And so I decided to watch it. (If you reside in the UK you can watch it on 4oD right now).

Being the absolute geek/Wikipedia addict I am, I had come across this film's name before whilst researching something or another related to homosexuality, purely for self-enrichment of course.

If I must explain what this film is about, it is basically a documentary revolving around the lives of homosexual Muslims in various settings, including a Pakistani imam based in South Africa, a Turkish lesbian couple, a bunch of Iranian men fleeing to Turkey to seek asylum in Canada, homosexual Muslims in India and LGBT Arabs living in France. Also, as the title suggests, the film explores the "jihad" that defines the relationship between their sexuality and their religion, each person having their own different take on the matter.

If I must be honest, the film only served to strengthen my atheism as someone who was raised as a Muslim. I totally understood the feelings of the people depicted in this film and what they were going through, whilst also feeling intense anger towards the heterosexist clerics who were oppressing them. I found myself heatedly debating with the computer screen about why homosexuality is not wrong and why using the Qur'an to discriminate against homosexuals is complete and utter hypocrisy.

The reasons for my atheism mainly revolve around the paradox of free will as well as my alienation from religion as a whole through my experiences with it. But it is not my job, of course, to be forcing my beliefs on others. The whole topic of homosexuality and Islam does, nevertheless, beg the following question:

If Allah truly does exist, why would Allah have created us the way we are if he didn't want us to be homosexual (or bi or trans)?

Salla!

I have been alerted by a particular source that a Mediterranean-themed club night with Turkish, Greek, Arabic, Balkan and Latin music shall be taking place at Soho's Escape Bar on Monday 27th December (i.e. tomorrow night).


Sure, it might be a little short notice, alerting you the day before and all, but it should be loads of fun. I mean who doesn't love good old cheesy Mediterranean hits?! Or juicy Mediterraneans?!

Take a look at the website or the Facebook event for more details.

Be there or be square.

**facepalm**

As the end of 2010 draws closer and closer, it can probably be concluded that the biggest fail I've come across this year has got to be this, ladies and gentlemen:



OK, if the errors lay in grammar or syntax it would be understandable. But the massive fail here is that the translation means precisely the opposite of what is being input.

"Ben eşcinsel değilim" means "I'm not gay". Could machine translation possibly get any worse than giving the opposite meaning of what is requested?! Is this meant to be some sort of freaky conspiracy?!! Sort it out, Google!

Even talking about homosexuality is a crime...apparently

For those hardcore news junkies who probably found out about this whole catastrophe yesterday (please keep scathing comments to yourselves; the fact that I'm even writing about yesterday's news absolutely riles my soul), RTÜK, which is basically a Turkish version of OFCOM for you Brits, has decided to fine Habertürk, one of Turkey's gazillion news channels, for discussing homosexuality, or more specifically, this particular scene of a crappy Turkish soap opera called "Kılıç Günü":


ATV'de eşcinsel sahne!
Uploaded by medyapatronu1. - Check out other Film & TV videos.

This scene, which, weirdly enough (as far as I'm aware - please correct me if I'm wrong) managed to escape unharmed, is significant because it happens to be the first ever broadcast scene of its kind in all Turkish TV history. Whilst that might initially sound exciting and super-cool to the queer ear, producer Osman Sınav, in response to the kıro kerfuffle that this particular scene generated, claimed that he wanted to use this series to show viewers the "evils" of homosexuality, presumably by throwing in yet another boring conspiracy theory. But, of course, can anything remotely intelligent be expected from the mouth of a complete dick who makes crappy, fascist shows like Kurtlar Vadisi? This show did end up getting cancelled, anyway, so no need to get our knickers in a twist over someone who has the artistic capabilities of Goebbels.

ANYWAY, RTÜK, being so concerned about protecting "the moral development of youth and children", has decided to fine Habertürk 500,000 liras for discussing homosexuality.

This isn't the first time such a thing has happened. For example, RTÜK also gave a warning to e2 over broadcasting the series "Hung", claiming that its treatment of such "perversions" as homosexuality as "normal" would be harmful for society's sexual health.

Now, I don't need to explain why I'm pissed off about this. It is pretty fucking obvious. But we should still be worried. The fact that Turks can't even discuss homosexuality on TV provides a highly deplorable image of the level of freedom of speech in Turkey as well as the medieval, ignorant attitudes that those in power still have. Because homosexuality cannot safely be discussed on Turkish television, this means that the Turkish masses in general will remain ignorant about gay issues, thus impeding on Turkey's fledgling gay rights movement. Furthermore, the message that RTÜK are sending out to Turkish LGBT youth is highly irresponsible in that RTÜK are basically telling them that they are "abnormal". I, myself, wanted to commit suicide once because of the way RTÜK made me feel.

If RTÜK are SO concerned about "protecting" children then how about getting rid of all those STUPID mafia shows and those STUPID late night talk shows? If anything they, through their idolisation of violence, paranoid nationalism and machismo, as well as their objectification of women, are the ones to blame for the problems of Turkish youth psychology as a whole (well partially, anyway - there is, of course, more to life than TV). NOT having a mere discussion about homosexuality.

Bastards.

UKTGLA!!

Towards the end of September this year, a couple of days before I started university, I came up with the fabulous idea of forming my own Facebook group dedicated to Turkish and Turkish Cypriot LGBTs living in the United Kingdom. I called it:

UK Turkish Gay and Lesbian Association (UKTGLA)

Like this blog, the group is also relatively new and, as a result, only has 23 members so far. Despite this arguably major shortcoming, I did nevertheless find it reassuring to know that I wasn't the only member of the Turkish community in this country who liked to park their bike up the dirt track.

So, why should you care about this? Well, you are reading this blog, aren't you? Join =). Please!!!

One particularly important aspect, I must say, is the Turkish-language "LGBT hayatı" discussion threads that I've created in the group's "Discussions" tabs, highlighting LGBT life in different parts of the UK in the Turkish language. I hope that group members will add more info to these threads, thus helping us form useful information "brochures", so to speak, for LGBT Turks whose command of English isn't particularly advanced.

If you join, I will love you eternally =).

First post!

Merhaba ve hoş geldiniz =).

Hello my beautiful LGBTQ brothers and sisters, and my equally beautiful straight allies.

As you may have gathered, this is an LGBT-themed blog. Whilst I shall not be disclosing my true identity at this point in time (as I am, unfortunately, not out of the closet to my family), please refer to me by my pseudonym, Andrew Wells.

Despite only being 19 years old and still being, in many respects, a "gay baby", I have become somewhat militant as a result of my psychological experiences in coming to terms with my sexuality and having to deal with ingrained homophobia from my parents as well as society as a whole.

As someone who has grown up in the UK I feel more comfortable writing in English. However, for those LGBT members of the Turkish community who don't speak English as a first language/fluently, I also recognise the importance of providing them information in their own language. As such this blog will take a slightly bilingual feel, with the occasional post written in Turkish.

It is often said that LGBTs constitute approximately 4% of all humanity. Given the fact that there are approximately 300,000 Turks in the UK, this would account for 12,000 LGBT Turks, a number which must not be ignored. And yet LGBT recognition and support is unfortunately lacking in the Turkish community. It really is about time we all came together and stood up, shaking off our invisibility and shame. We must be strong. We must fight.

I love you all, and I wish you luck.

Oh, and if you have ANY suggestions at all, please feel free to comment =).