Within April 27 - May 3, 2020, three articles that generate hate speech were selected from print media. You can find three articles that contain hate speech against LGBTI people as well as the analyses written about them below.¹

1.  In Diriliş Postası’s headline story titled “It’s not about Ali Erbaş, can’t you see?”, LGBTI individuals are repeatedly labeled as “pervert” due to their sexual orientations and gender identities as we see in the following remarks: “The perverted mentality that attacks Islam, Prophet Muhammed and Muslims at every turn strikes again. Enemies of faith, who insulted Islamic values with stories like ‘Woman wearing shorts assaulted and people eating during Ramadan assaulted’, stepped up their game and mobilized LGBT lobby this year” and “While we are preoccupied by the novel coronavirus, certain groups with secret purposes are working for imposing homosexuality on Muslim Anatolian people. Especially targeting the young population, this group spreads its venom every day on social media. The new target of these bullies is Turkish President of Religious Affairs Ali Erbaş, who repeated what Islam commands and prohibits during Friday sermon.” Thus, the existing discrimination against LGBTI individuals is fomented by labeling them as a “threat” against society and wellbeing.

2.  Hilâl Kaplan, in her column titled “The purpose is to destroy family structure”, writes: “Insight to homosexual movement attacking sacred values and targeting family structure”, “SABAH reveals how homosexual movement assumed a political identity attacking all the sacred values of society and turned into a threat especially against the youth and families” and “homosexual movement, which aggressively suppresses any criticism and constrains the society within the dichotomy of ‘you are either with us or against us’, also acts as an enemy of Islam. Persons and institutions are dominated.” With these remarks, she labels LGBTI identities as a “threat” against society and targets them.

3.  In Yeni Akit’s headline story titled “Perverted associations must be closed down!”, LGBTI individuals are labeled as a “threat” against society and targeted: “The EU countries and Russia started to take strict measures against lgbti homosexual perverts who are sabotaging the atmosphere of freedom in Turkey. Speaking to Akit, experts stated that it’s time for taking strict measure against LGBTI danger in Turkey as well.” LGBTIs are also insulted as “pervert” and “lowly creatures” and hatred against them is fomented as we see in the following remarks: “It is once again confirmed that homos are the lowest creatures on earth as they rabidly attacked Muslims and Islam because of Turkish President of Religious Affairs Ali Erbaş’ Friday sermon. Organizing the so-called pride march during Muslims’ most sacred month Ramadan, lgbti perverts started to talk against God’s commands and prohibitions. Legal experts and family associations stated that associations and other institutions that serve as their headquarters must be closed down immediately.” Thus, the article cause normalization and spread of discrimination and prejudices against LGBTIs.

^{1. Within the scope of the media monitoring work focusing on hate speech, all national newspapers and around 500 local newspapers are monitored based on pre-determined keywords (e.g. Traitor, apostate, refugee, Christian, Jewish, separatist, etc.) via the media monitoring center. While the main focus has been hate speech on the basis of national, ethnic and religious identities; sexist and homophobic discourses are also examined as part of the monitoring work.}