On June 29, 2025, Turkish police detained more than fifty people during the Istanbul Pride march. Authorities cited public order concerns to justify the arrests. Among those detained were lawyers, journalists, and LGBT rights advocates. The incident marked another year in a pattern that has developed over the last decade: The Turkish government has consistently banned Pride events, deployed riot police to enforce the bans, and detained peaceful demonstrators.
The Turkish government has consistently banned Pride events, deployed riot police to enforce the bans, and detained peaceful demonstrators.
Before the 2010s, Turkey was an outlier among Muslim-majority nations regarding LGBT visibility. Istanbul Pride began in 2003 with a small turnout but grew each year. By 2014, it had become the largest LGBT pride event in the Muslim world, attracting tens of thousands. This growth occurred during a period when the Turkish government, led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), sought closer ties with the European Union and presented itself as a model for moderate Islamic governance.
This trajectory shifted after 2015. That year, police used water cannons, rubber bullets, and tear gas against Pride attendees in Istanbul.
The Turkish government banned subsequent Pride marches, and the state began tightening restrictions on LGBT organizations and events. In 2021, Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention, an international treaty aimed at preventing violence against women. The Turkish presidency explained the withdrawal in part by alleging that the treaty was being “hijacked by a group of people attempting to normalize homosexuality.”
In 2020, Turkey’s top Islamic cleric, Ali Erbaş, described homosexuality as responsible for disease and societal collapse in a sermon broadcast during Ramadan. Erdoğan publicly defended the statement, framing the criticism of the sermon as an attack on Islamic values.
Erdoğan’s government has since reinforced a narrative that LGBT rights activism is a foreign import and a threat to Turkish cultural and religious values. University campuses, once viewed as safe spaces for LGBT organizing, have come under scrutiny. In 2021, police arrested student protesters at Boğaziçi University for displaying LGBT symbols.
While Turkey’s government justifies these policies as protective of national and religious identity, the lived reality for LGBT people has become more constrained. Pride events are now underground or canceled. Legal protections are lacking. Social media campaigns targeting queer individuals sometimes result in physical threats or state surveillance.
Turkey is not an isolated case. Across parts of the Middle East and North Africa, governments have adopted digital surveillance techniques to identify and arrest LGBT individuals. According to a 2023 investigation by The Associated Press, several governments, including those of Egypt, Lebanon, and Tunisia, have monitored dating apps and social media to target users.
Legal penalties vary by country. In Mauritania and Iran, homosexual conduct can result in the death penalty. In Algeria and Iraq, same-sex relations are criminalized and sometimes prosecuted under vague morality laws. In Gaza, governed by Hamas, LGBT people face abuse, imprisonment, and extrajudicial violence.
The international LGBT rights movement has made gains in Europe and North America, but these victories are not reflected in many Muslim-majority nations.
The international LGBT rights movement has made gains in Europe and North America, but these victories are not reflected in many Muslim-majority nations. The assumption that progress is global has created blind spots. Public figures and advocacy organizations that are vocal about Western LGBT issues are often silent when it comes to repression in places like Turkey, Iran, or Gaza. Such silence on these issues enables persecution. The global LGBT movement cannot advocate selectively. It must speak out for those who cannot safely speak for themselves.
LGBT people exist in every society. Repression does not erase their existence; it only heightens their vulnerability. It is imperative that human rights organizations, LGBT advocacy groups, and international policymakers include the experiences of LGBT individuals in Muslim-majority regions in their agendas and conversations.
The case of Turkey serves as a reminder that gains are reversible, and that vigilance is necessary, not only in celebrating progress, but also in confronting regression—wherever it occurs.
