Turkey: Gay teen allegedly killed by family

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI – Turkey’s Hürriyet Daily News reports 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.

According to Hürriyet, a member of the local community alleges that the 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; they wanted the police to hide the incident,” the person alleges in the report. “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.”

Gay Star News cites 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.

Natasha Barsotti is originally from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. She had high aspirations of representing her country in Olympic Games sprint events, but after a while the firing of the starting gun proved too much for her nerves. So she went off to university instead. Her first professional love has always been journalism. After pursuing a Master of Journalism at UBC , she began freelancing at Xtra West — now Xtra Vancouver — in 2006, becoming a full-time reporter there in 2008.

Keep Reading

The new generation of gay Conservative sellouts

OPINION: Melissa Lantsman’s and Eric Duncan’s refusals to call out their party’s transphobia is a betrayal of the LGBTQ2S+ community

Over 300 anti-LGBTQ2S+ bills have been introduced this year. This doesn’t mean we should panic

OPINION: While it’s important to watch out for threats, not all threats are created equally. Some of these bills will die a natural death

Xtra’s top LGBTQ2S+ stories of the year

The best and brightest—even most bewildering—stories from a back catalogue brimming with insight

Elon Musk and Texas attorney general Ken Paxton are suing Media Matters. Here’s why queer and trans people should care

OPINION: When politicians and the rich leverage the power of the state to quell dissent, we all lose