Homosexuals Fed Up with Media Bias

At a session at the Second International Meeting against Homophobia, Ugur Yüksel of the Kaos GL Magazine , Ugur Alper of the alternative dictionary homoloji.com and Bawer Cakir from Lambdaistanbul an association for homosexuals, bisexuals and transgendered people, discussed their experiences with the media.

We want to make our own news

The representatives spoke of the "loneliness" that homosexuals feel when following the news, and the "sexist male language" that is dominant in the media. They expressed the desire to make their own news through a network of regional reporters, in order to show that news need not "other", ridicule, or ignore homosexuals.

Homoloji.com for a new language

Alper, the moderator of homoloji.com, explained that the aim of the alternative dictionary was to spread awareness of the language used among homosexuals. He said that the internet offered the opportunity to overcome Turkey's politics of rendering homosexuals "lonely".

Screening the media

Cakir of Lamdaistanbul presented the conclusions of the LGBT media screening group, claiming that many news related to homosexuality were "ridiculous" and "biased".

Cakir reminded the audience that homosexuality was often used to "sell" a news item, giving the example of the discussion of da Vinci's sexual orientation when the book "The Da Vinci Code" appeared on the market. (AÖ/NZ/AG/EÜ)