Courts jail LGBTQ activists as Turkey crackdown widens

Turkey’s LGBTQ community has faced increasing pressure since the government declared 2026 the beginning of its “Decade of the Family.”(AFP) — Turkish courts have jailed more LGBTQ activists and supporters, bringing to 62 the number ordered held in custody following a weekend crackdown, a legal rights group said Wednesday.The move came as authorities broadened an operation against the LGBTQ community in which more than 200 people were detained, sparking a backlash from rights groups in Turkey and abroad.President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who heads an Islamic conservative government, has described the LGBTQ community as a “deviant” movement of “perverts.” His justice minister defended the raids as an effort to protect “children and the institution of the family.”Early Sunday, police raided gay bars and the homes of LGBTQ activists with a warrant naming 162 people, nine organizations and 13 companies across 15 provinces, including Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.According to Lawyers for Justice, or AIH, about 110 people were detained Sunday.Of those, 62 were ordered jailed by courts in Ankara, Izmir, the southern city of Mersin and the western province of Aydin.According to the Media and Law Studies Association, or MLSA, 13 of them were jailed by an Ankara court Tuesday night, including seven members of Kaos GL, a leading LGBTQ rights group, five transgender people and a journalist.Another 28 were jailed in Mersin, the DHA news agency said.The remaining 29 detainees were scheduled to appear before an Istanbul court Wednesday, AIH said.More than 100 protesters detainedSeparately, more than 100 people have been detained while protesting the crackdown in Turkey’s largest cities over the past two days.Two journalists covering the protests also were detained: one from the left-leaning BirGun daily and another from Germany’s ARD television, the Turkish Journalists’ Union said.Police fired tear gas at about 200 protesters in Izmir on Monday. On Tuesday, they broke up a demonstration outside an Istanbul court, according to AFP journalists at the scene.Police detained 106 people there, according to AIH and another legal association, CHD.Police also broke up an evening protest in Ankara, reportedly detaining about a dozen people, although there was no independent confirmation of the number.Authorities also have blocked dozens of social media accounts belonging to LGBTQ rights groups, media outlets and journalists who covered the crackdown.They include accounts belonging to MLSA, Amnesty International Turkey, Academics for Peace and the Evrensel newspaper, among others.Although same-sex relations are legal in Turkey, hostility toward LGBTQ people remains widespread, with homophobia evident even at the highest levels of government.Turkey’s LGBTQ community has faced increasing pressure since the government declared 2026 the beginning of its “Decade of the Family.”The crackdown has drawn criticism from opposition parties and the European Union. The European Parliament’s Turkey rapporteur, Nacho Sánchez Amor, described the arrests as “a shocking escalation of repression” that was “taking the country down a dark path.”Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads