And You Wonder Why There Are Pride Events?

Pride is a remembrance of the oppression that we suffered and are suffering even today around the world.

Turkish police break up LGBT pride parade in Istanbul, detain dozens
Fox News
By Anders Hagstrom
June 26, 2022


Police in Turkey broke up a and LGBT pride parade on Sunday, detaining dozens of attendees.

Police officers also reportedly attempted to stop journalists from recording or taking pictures of the event, which took place in Istanbul. One photographer for the Agence France Presse was detained, according to the outlet.

Nevertheless, photos from the event show police struggling with rally-goers. It is unclear how many people attended the MARCH

Istanbul authorities issued a 7-day ban on public demonstrations ahead of the pride parade.

"We have obtained information that between 21 June 2022 (Tuesday) and 23 June 2022 (Thursday) gatherings, press releases, marches, distribution of leaflets, etc are planned to be held within the scope of the 30th ‘Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week,’" city governors said in a statement. "All events are banned in all open and closed areas for seven days."

I gather that this is not the first Pride event that was broken up by the police…

Turkish police break up student LGBTQ event, arrest dozens
Police in Turkey have broken up an LGBTQ pride parade at one the country’s top public universities and detained all of the participants
ABC News
By The Associated Press
May 20, 2022


Police in Turkey broke up an LGBTQ pride parade at one the country’s top public universities and detained all of the participants Friday.

Riot police entered Bogazici University and surrounded dozens of students who were waiving rainbow flags and calling for tolerance. They arrested the students one by one and led them into police buses with their hands cuffed behind them.

A small group of students tried to resist arrest.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s conservative government has banned LGBTQ parades since 2015, citing security concerns, “public sensitivities” and other issues. Authorities have ordered other LGBTQ events stopped as well.

The Times of Israel reported that,

After a spectacular Istanbul Pride parade in 2014 joined by more than 100,000 people, Turkish authorities have banned the march in recent years, officially for security reasons

AP ran two article about this, in the first article they reported that,

Images on social media showed people being frisked and loaded onto buses, including at least one news photographer. Journalists’ union DISK Basin-Is said “many” were beaten by police.

Local residents banged pots and pans from their windows and balconies in a show of support for the marchers as a police helicopter circled overhead.

[…]

Turkey previously was one of the few Muslim-majority countries to allow Pride marches. The first was held in 2003, the year after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party came to power.

In recent years, the government has adopted a harsh approach to public events by groups that do not represent its religiously conservative views. Large numbers of arrests and the use of tear gas and plastic pellets by police have accompanied Pride events.

Counter-demonstrations by nationalists and Islamists, who claim the LGBTQ community is a danger to “Turkish values,” have also threatened marchers.

Where have we heard that before?

Could it have possibly been from Republican governors saying that we put “Family Values” in jeopardy?

In the other AP article they wrote that,

Detained LGBTQ activists in Istanbul Pride being released

Istanbul’s LGBTQ Pride organizers say more than 360 people were detained by police Sunday following a ban on all Pride events.

Kaos GL, a leading LGBTQ rights association, said all the detained were being freed Monday after giving their police statement and undergoing health checks. Some were released overnight.

[…]

But in 2015, police dispersed crowds using tear gas and water cannons after a last-minute ban. The march has been banned ever since and top Turkish officials have called LGBTQ people “perverts” who aim to hurt traditional family values.

“Health Checks” they fear us and depict as being sick and depraved so we need to be checked that we aren’t spreading vile diseases.

Now I want to think about this.

“By hosting ‘Pride week’, your district has, at best, undertaken a week-long instructional effort in human sexuality without parental consent … Or, worse, your district is cynically pushing a week-long indoctrination of your students that not only fails to obtain parental consent, but subtly cuts parents out of the loop. Either way, you are breaking state law.”

Do you know where that was said? Russia? Hungary? Turkey? Or another authoritarian country?

No it wasn’t any of those countries.

It was Texas.