Gay Guide

Ankara

Istanbul, Izmir, Adana, Bursa

Traditionally gay relationships were between bisexuals and real gays. In this culture the bisexuals dont identify as gay and are more straight acting and play the active role in a gay relationship. The gays are more efeminate and are of course passive. With the changing culture, western style gay-to-gay relationships are rapidly becoming more widespread but still it is not the mainstream as in the western countries yet. Whilst homosexuality is not a criminal offence in Turkey there is still a lot of discrimination against gays and lesbians as well as repression by the police and the authorities. There is a large gay scene centred in Istanbul with many gay bars, clubs, cafes, restaurants, hotels, saunas and hamams. There is a smaller scene in Ankara. Istanbul is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and combined with the busy gay scene we think it is a city that gay and lesbian visiters will find utterly charming.

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As there are no articles on homosexuality in the law vague laws on public morals and public order are used instead. For example the police have the right to take anyone who they deem suspicious to the police station for interrogation. In addition homosexuality is considered to be an indecent act that violates public decency and therefore can be penalised under public decency laws. Freedom of association and expression by gays is also attacked utilising highly flexible police regulations to ban meetings and demonstrations on so-called public morality grounds. In 1995 and 1996 Lambda, Istanbul planned activity weeks which would have included gay and lesbian themed films, panels discussions, and exhibitions. On both ocassions, they were banned on the grounds that society was not yet ready for the visibility of homosexuality.

65.67 million

Lira TL

The best time to visit Turkey is diring the summer months of May to September. Parts of Turkey are quite high and it gets colder than you might realise. Turkey has a climate that is characterized by great extremes and wide temperature variations between regions and seasons. The narrow coast land and mountain slopes to the north, west and south have wetter and milder winters than the interior as well as moderately hot summers. The interior plateau winters are cold with frost while the summers are hot. Eastern Turkey has bitter cold winters and hot summers. Average annual precipitation in Istanbul is 723 mm while average temperature ranges in Ankara are from -4c to 4c in January to 15c to 31c in August.