Istanbul, Sep 23: The 25-year-old translator by day and trans drag performer by night felt overwhelming panic and anxiety when several thousand demonstrators gathered and marched Sunday in Turkey to demand a ban on what they consider gay propaganda and to outlaw LGBTQ organizations.

The Big Family Gathering march in the conservative heart of Istanbul attracted parents with children, nationalists, hard-line Islamists and conspiracy theorists. Turkey's media watchdog gave the event the government's blessing by including a promotional video that called LGBTQ people a 슬롯사이트œvirus슬롯사이트� in its list of public service announcements for broadcasters.

슬롯사이트œWe need to make all our defense against this LGBT. We need to get rid of it," said construction worker Mehmet Yalcin, 21, who attended the event wearing a black headband printed with Islam's testimony of faith. 슬롯사이트œWe are sick of and truly uncomfortable that our children are being encouraged and pulled to this.슬롯사이트�

Seeing images from the gathering terrified Willie Ray, the drag performer who identifies as nonbinary, and Willie Ray's mother, who was in tears after talking to her child. The fear wasn't misplaced. The Europe branch of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association ranked Turkey second to last, ahead of only Azerbaijan, in its most recent 49-country legal equality index, saying LGBTQ people endured 슬롯사이트œcountless hate crimes.슬롯사이트�슬롯 머신 사이트 추천Israeli PM Yair Lapid Endorses Two-State Solution With Palestinians.

슬롯사이트œI feel like I can be publicly lynched,슬롯사이트� Willie Ray said, describing the daily sense of dread that comes with living in Istanbul. The performer recalls leaving a nightclub still in makeup on New Year's Eve and hurrying to get to a taxi as strangers on the street called out slurs and 슬롯사이트œtried to hunt me, basically.슬롯사이트�

Sunday's march was the biggest anti-LGBTQ demonstration of its kind in Turkey, where civil rights for a community more commonly referred to here as LGBTI+ 슬롯사이트� lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and other gender identities and sexual orientations 슬롯사이트� have been under assault in the years since an estimated 100,000 people celebrated Pride in Istanbul in 2014.

In a visible sign of the shift, the anti-LGBTQ march went ahead without any police interference. Conversely, LGBTQ groups have had their freedom to assemble severely curtailed since 2015, with officials citing both security and morality grounds.

Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the Pride march planned for that year. Government officials have since banned the event. Activists have tried to gather anyway, and more than 370 people were detained in Istanbul in June.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's views also have grown more stridently anti-LGBTQ over time. Before the 2002 election that brought the Justice and Development Party (AKP) he co-founded to power, a younger Erdogan said at a televised campaign event that he found mistreatment of gay people inhumane and legal protections for them in Turkey a 슬롯사이트œmust.슬롯사이트�

슬롯사이트œAnd now, 20 years into this, you have an entirely different president that seems to be mobilizing based on these dehumanizing, criminal approaches to the LGBTQ movement itself,슬롯사이트� said Mine Eder, a political science professor at Bogazici University in Istanbul.슬롯 머신 사이트 추천Video: Passenger Punches Flight Attendant for Not Letting Him Use First Class Restroom in Plane; Gets Lifetime Ban From US Airline.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu has called LGBTQ people "perverts." In 2020, Erdogan defended the head of religious affairs after he claimed homosexuality 슬롯사이트œbrings disease and causes the generation to decay.슬롯사이트� While championing his long-held belief that the identities of women are rooted in motherhood and family, the Turkish leader last year urged people to dismiss what 슬롯사이트œlesbians schmesbians슬롯사이트� say.

Turkey also withdrew from a European treaty protecting women against violence, after lobbying from conservative groups that claimed the treaty promoted homosexuality. The country could become more unwelcoming for the LGBTQ community. The Unity in Ideas and Struggle Platform, the organizer of Sunday's event, said it plans to push for a law that would ban the alleged LGBTQ 슬롯사이트œpropaganda슬롯사이트� that the group maintains is pervasive on Netflix and social media, as well as in arts and sports.

The platform's website states it also favors a ban on LGBTQ organizations.

슬롯사이트œWe are a Muslim country and we say no to this. Our statesmen and the other parties should all support this," said Betul Colak, who attended Sunday's gathering wearing a scarf with the Turkish flag. Haunted by 슬롯사이트œthe feeling that you can be attacked anytime," Willie Ray thinks it would be a 슬롯사이트œtotal catastrophe슬롯사이트� if a ban on the LGBTQ organizations that provide visibility, psychological support and safe spaces were enacted.

Eder, the professor, said it would be 슬롯사이트œsimply illegal슬롯사이트� to close down LGBTQ civil society based on ideological, Islamic and conservative norms 슬롯사이트� even if Turkey's norms have indeed shifted to 슬롯사이트œusing violent language, violent strategies and legalizing them.슬롯사이트�

The Social Policies, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association, a nongovernmental LGBTQ advocacy and outreach organization in Istanbul commonly known as SPoD, is among the LGBTQ groups that stopped posting their addresses online after receiving threatening calls.

슬롯사이트œIt's easy for a maniac to try and hurt us after all the hate speech from state officials,슬롯사이트� said SPoD lobbyist Ogulcan Yediveren, 27. 슬롯사이트œBut these security concerns, this atmosphere of fear, doesn't stop us from work and instead reminds us every time how much we need to work.슬롯사이트�

Gay activist Umut Rojda Yildirim, who works as SPoD's lawyer, thinks the anti-LGBTQ sentiments on view Sunday aren't dominant across Turkish society, but that the minority expressing them seem "louder when they have government funds, when they're supported by the government watchdog.슬롯사이트�

슬롯사이트œYou can just shut down an office, but I'm not going to disappear. My other colleagues aren't going to disappear. We'll be here no matter what,슬롯사이트� Yildirim said.