A recent trend of breaking taboos in Turkey, including a top government official’s reported use of the word ’Kurdistan,’ has Turkey’s LGBT community calling for stronger political commitments to fight discrimination against homosexuals. This is about rights and any tolerant society can benefit from its own diversity, the Danish ambassador says. Amid a recent flare-up of discussions about homosexuality in Turkey, representatives from a range of areas in society have come together for a meeting in Ankara in an attempt to confront the prevalence of homophobia in the country. The Turkish media was engrossed yesterday in the legal battle of a football referee who had to quit his job because of his sexual orientation. The referee was forced to leave his post because he had withdrawn from his compulsory military service on account of his homosexuality being documented in a medical report. In line with referee regulations, a related article states that anybody who fails to complete his military service for health reasons is unfit to perform as a referee. Another controversy on the issue that also drew attention yesterday was sparked when the columnist for the daily Zaman, Ali Bulaç, said the crimes committed against civilians in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq were carried out by homosexuals. Academics have described the remark as discriminatory, while lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, organizations said: "He is in search of a mask for his homophobia." 

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Apparently Turkey is not as liberated as some claim it is..... Quotes like the one from Ali Bulaç belong to the nineteenth century, not the twenty-first!

 You prove my statement that Turkey is not that much liberated. Can you explain why you disagree with me that the above quote is not a nineteenth century one?

Homosexuality was once frowned upon and forbidden;  then it became free, as civilisation progressed. Thank god I shall not be alive,  when it becomes mandatory. 

 It never will. However, as no one asks you (general) about your sexual preferences and one certainly has the right to say ´it´s not your business what I do or don´t do in the bedroom´ why is that suddenly different when talking about gay people? Why is suddenly everyone entitled to frown, to disapprove, to discriminate, to reject?

What they do in the privacy of their bedrooms, between mutually consenting adults, do not bother me at all.

I do get ticklish however, when I see them posting sneaky promotional messages in this forum.

 Why would you get "ticklish"?  Are you afraid that you may be swayed in your sexuality?  

I would love to see an example of what you consider to be a "sneaky promotional message".  

 I think the OP was a flame baiting wind up. What has "Kurdistan" got to do with it and I´m sure the Danish ambassador is an expert on the subject.

 Read again and you´ll see it was both about taboos.

http://www.porges.net/Frankists.html      (copy&paste, if link does not work)

Jacob Frank was the head of a Jewish religious group, later called the FRANKISTS.  Jacob  beleved that the humanity could only be saved by Mesiah coming back to lead his people out of disgrace. He also believed that Mesiah would arrive only when things got really bad.

Logical move for Jacob to preemt the arrival of Mesiah then, was to help push morality down into deepest pits, as quickly as possible. Mesiah would then rush to the world to save his herd.

He presented his followers with weird sermons to achieve his mission. Things went fine, until one day he preached that homosexuality was a form of divine worship. Neither the Polish King nor the Catholic Inquisitors liked that. He was tried and jailed; his followers disbanded. Most of his followers suddenly declared that they would become devout  Catholic Christians from then on, and evaded penalties. The rumour is they secretly kept following Jacob´s sermons.

Where are the descendants of Frankists nowadays?  Who do you think is promoting homosexuality, unisex marriages  etc. and getting the Catholic Pope vey upset?

Note: Believe it or not, Jacob Frank was one of the disciples of Sabetai Tsevi, the latter being one of the gratest contributions of Turkish culture to world civilisation. Jacob spoke perfect Turkish and passed himself as a Turk, on more then a few tight occassions.