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 =).