Author Archives: queertr

Belgium Deports Homophobic Turkish Imam

According to reports in the Belgian media, the imam of the Green Mosque in Houthalen-Helchteren, near the city of Genk, shared a discriminatory message on his Facebook account that “homosexuality is a disease, causes decay and is banned by Islam”.

Imam also recalled the controversial anti-homosexual preaching of the President of Religious Affairs Ali Erbaş. He also thanked a follower who wrote “Homosexuality is the virus of capitalism and democracy”.

Sammy Mahdi, Minister of State for Asylum and Immigration of the federal government, announced that they decided not to extend the residence permit of the imam, who has been in Belgium for 3 years. The Belgian minister said, “Those who come to our society to sow hate have no place here“.

Sent from Turkey by the Directorate of Religious Affairs, he has made application for renewal of residence and work permit to the Immigration Office in Belgium last October. Belgian authorities launched an investigation against the imam on the grounds that “it could harm public order and national security” due to his homophobic views.

The Flemish government has also taken legal action to revoke the Green Mosque’s license.

Mosque management will take legal action

It was stated that the Belgian government would ask the Turkish imam, whose residence permit was not extended, to leave the country.

State Minister Mahdi said, “We can no longer tolerate stigmatizing the gay community and spreading such messages. If you have the right to work in Belgium as an imam, you have an exemplary duty. Anyone who does not want to abide by our values will have to bear the consequences.”

Flemish Home Office and Integration Minister Bart Somers has also taken legal action to revoke the Green Mosque’s license. Somers stated that the Green Mosque is in danger of losing its recognition, “on the grounds that it spreads hatred and discriminatory messages towards the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community.

Helchteren Mayor Alain Yzermans said the city council will seriously consider the Green Mosque issue. “Discriminatory messages opposing the democratic, constitutional state are unacceptable. Our municipality attaches great importance to equality and tolerance” said the mayor.

An official from the Green Mosque administration told the BBC Turkish that they were surprised by the Belgian government’s decision and that they will meet with the lawyer on Thursday for the necessary legal action. The mosque association manager refrained from saying, “I don’t know, I forgot” the name of the imam, who was the target of the accusations.

Boğaziçi University’s LGBTI+ Studies Club Closed

According to the news of Bianet, Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun has shared a decision with the signature of rector Melih Bulu and announced that Boğaziçi University’s LGBTIStudies Candidate Club has been closed, arguing that the protests are “about it all.”

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) targeted the LGBTI+ community after Boğaziçi University students used a picture of Kaaba – a holy site for Muslims – featuring LGBTI+ flags in an exhibition during the ongoing protests.

The picture was on the floor to be hung as part of an exhibition at the university’s South Campus when Boğaziçi University’s Islamic Studies Club (BİSAK) noticed it and deemed it an insult towards Islam.

“An art exhibition was launched on the campus on Thursday [Jan. 28] via using the ongoing protests against the rector appointment as an excuse,” BİSAK tweeted on Jan. 29, referring to the month-long protests against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s rector appointment to the university.

“We will never allow our Islamic values to be made fun of within our university. We don’t accept this immorality to be legitimized under the guise of art,” BİSAK said, which immediately drew the attention of pro-government and Islamist media outlets.

Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun has announced that Prof. Melih Bulu, who has been appointed as the new rector of Boğaziçi University by President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has closed the LGBTI+ Studies Candidate Club over an investigation launched into a picture featuring the Kaaba, which also led to the arrest of two students at the weekend.

Decision of closure

In the official document signed by Bulu and sent to the related units of Boğaziçi University, a reference was made to the investigation which led to the arrest of two students and house arrest of two others.

“The candidacy status of the LGBTI+ Studies Candidate Club has been lifted on the grounds of the activities subjected to the related investigation and organization of events without permission,” the decision has read.

Source: Bianet and Duvar English

Israeli Rabbi: COVID-19 Vaccine Will Make You Gay

Rabbi Daniel Asor told his followers in a recent sermon that they should avoid being vaccinated against COVID-19 as doing so could “turn them” into homosexuals, according to Israel Hayom.

The Rabbi shared conspiracy theories with his followers, claiming that the vaccines are manufactured by a “global malicious government,” the Jerusalem Post reported.

Daniel Asor’s claimed that the “malicious government” is a mix of “secret societies,” including the Illuminati, and the Freemasons.

The secret societies seek to establish a new order in the world, he claimed.

Israeli media criticized the Rabbi, who urged his followers to not receive the vaccine at the time when other religious authorities ask people around the world to respond favorably to the vaccination campaign.

Several countries received COVID-19 vaccines, including the UK, Saudi Arabia, among other.

Rabbi Daniel Asor’s assertion goes against decrees issued by leading rabbis in Israel and around the world, who have called on ultra-Orthodox society to take every precaution against the global pandemic, including getting vaccinated.

Female To Male Before And After Photos

Transsexuality is when a person adopts a different gender identity by not feeling belonging to their assigned gender. Transsexuality refers to a person’s gender identity, so it should not be confused with sexual orientation. A transgender person may have sexual orientations such as heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual or asexual.

Transgender people, if they wish, can get medical help when making a permanent transition to the gender they define. During this transition period, practices such as hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery aim to adapt their bodies to the gender they are defined.

Transsexuality is seeing and feeling as a different gender in the inner world rather than one’s behavior. Therefore, it is not possible to determine transsexuals by their appearance. Because they do not always reflect on their external appearance that they feel different sex. Unlike transvestism, other than clothing, physical appearance and behavior, some of the transsexuals undergo gender reassignment surgery and switch to different gender socially and legally.

Trans man, The term used for transgender men. It is the name given to people who were born female but identify themselves as male.

Many transgender people share their photos before and after the gender transition process.

I am sharing some of the before and after trans men photos I found on the internet.

 

Understanding the Third Sex and Issues Related with Transgender

Transgender are not uncommon in our societies throughout the world. However, often they fail to attain a respectable and much deserved comfortable life in the world of the two predominant sexes of the society.

Transgender people are present in every country including US, Russia, Mexico, Britain, India, China etc. Yet, societies often discard them as unwanted. In some countries, transgender are allowed to be a part of the society, however, they find it difficult to mix up within the society freely and often they suffer humiliation, discrimination and poverty.

The major issue that a transgender faces is the difficulty in expressing their gender and the related issues. However, in some countries, like India, transgender are provided a special societal position, they often live in groups and there are some successful transgender in professional and political mainstreams of India.

Yet, except a few successful transgender, the majority of people belonging to this third sex suffer discrimination, humiliation and hatred.

How to Deal with a Transgender?

A man or woman may find it difficult and confusing to mingle with a transgender. The basic problem that you will face is the uncertainty about how to act in the presence of a transgender without doing anything that may hurt their feeling or emotions or may cause them to feel humiliated.

In general, people do not want to hurt them, yet, our general confusion, awkwardness and uncertainty becomes a reason for their humiliation. The Issue of the Gender of a Transgender Officially, only male and female are considered as the two present sexes. Hence, a transgender find it difficult to try to seek proper education, job or official help.

This is because most of the official papers demand gender identity while transgender is not an officially recognized gender while the only two gender identities mentioned in official papers are male or female. In such a situation, a transgender find if forced on them to lie about their gender identity and to present themselves either as a male or a female.

It would be better if government organizations and in fact private corporate firms also try to solve out this issue by either providing valid identification for the third gender as transgender, or by making it optional to declare the sex identity of a person. This issue is pretty similar to the issue of allowing free choice of either to mention someone’s sexual behaviour or not to mention it.

Just like a bisexual or homosexual person finds it difficult to announce his or her personal sexual orientation, a transgender also may find it humiliating to announce about their gender. If you come in contact with a transgender, you should try not to show your confusion about how to react in such a situation.

Use appropriate language while conversing with a transgender and try not to make an issue of “by what gender should they be recognized?” Transgender people are cool and friendly and often they love to converse with males and females without any hesitation while trying to answer all possible queries or curiosities a person may feel about them.

However, while asking questions and trying to know more about them, you need to be respectful and patient while giving them enough space and proper time to answer your queries appropriately. Just like a male or female, transgender are human beings and they deserves every individual right along with proper respect and humanly love.

Student Protests at Bogazici University

Students of Istanbul’s Bogazici University defied President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s appointment of Melih Bulu as their school’s rector for a third day in a row, accompanied by more police officers than the previous demonstrations. Students marched to the ferry docks after a protest on campus, crossed the Bosphorus and joined a crowd of hundreds more in Kadıköy.

Melih Bulu was appointed rector on January 1 by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and is a member of his ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP. He was rector of Halic University in Istanbul before assuming his new post.

“We do not want an appointed rector. Melih Bulu is not our rector,” student representatives said in a press statement, demanded his resignation and that of other politically appointed rectors.

“It is not a crime if a rector has a political identity,” Omer Celik, the spokesperson of the AKP, told a press conference on Tuesday.

The first protest, on Monday, was held at the Bogazici University campus. Dozens of students were detained during and after the protest by police.

LGBTI+ students attended the protests with rainbow flags.

Trans Man & Non-Binary Guide

In this article, I would like to talk about the products that make life easier for us as much as I can and the products we use / will use. I think it will be a little long but it is worth your reading.

Most of us have body dysphoria, and it is obvious that we have difficulties in our daily lives. The “binder” comes first among the items that facilitate this. There are those who suffer from severe posture disorders due to chest dysphoria. Many things are used in order not to reveal the breast, but the safest and healthiest of them is binder.

What should be considered when buying a binder?

First of all, the fabric quality of the binder that is not removed for a long time (actually this is wrong) is very important. It should be a breathable fabric, it should not cause allergies. Frankly, there is no place that produces locally produced products with very pleasant qualities. If your budget is not enough to buy from abroad, you can review and buy the products on the “fmtsmalls” page. “Underworks” and “gc2b” companies from abroad are among the best. Many trans people prefer these companies. Apart from that, there are many sellers’ products on Aliexpres, you can choose by looking at their comments here. When using binder, you should try not to wear it for a long time. This is important for your health, in order to avoid allergic reactions on your skin and to prevent serious deformations in the breast structure. In addition, you should not use methods such as bandaging.

If you are still hidden from your family and want to use binder, you can keep it safe by keeping it between your clothes when you are not wearing it.

Our second product, called packer, is used instead of under-pants penis. When you want to show yourself as a man among people on the street, if you don’t want feminine lines to stand out, you can use what is called packer. Before the products sold, you can get help from the videos of making a sock packer at home, which you can easily find on Youtube. When you write How to make a packer, you will see many videos. Even if you don’t speak English, you can easily learn while watching. In addition, domestic and foreign companies produce packers that are realistic. I recommend that you pay attention to the fact that it is not too big when choosing.

Another product after Packer is realistic penises. These are divided into two or three functions for standing peeing and for intercourse. I think there may be many more details, but I do not have very detailed information. Especially if you are going to buy it for a relationship, I recommend that you allocate a good budget and buy a quality product. In addition, if you use lubricant during contact with these products, you should be careful that it is water-based, others damage the product. Using condoms is beneficial for your partner’s health, again, it must be water-based. You can also find many review videos on Youtube, and you can find hint articles on foreign forums. Just start looking for a great paradise for us on Google and ask to learn. I have to say that in realistic products, if you want double-sided pleasure, which is an important thing, there is an apparatus called the pleasure rod developed abroad to enjoy not only your partner but also yourself. You can get an idea by looking at the company’s products and their Youtube reviews. Copies of this product were published recently as a domestic production, but I always favor the original purchase of such things. My first suggestion for Packer and realistics is Peacock firm, RealMagik, TransGuySupply and FTMShopping are others. In addition, many underwear manufacturing companies also sell packers and realistic products. In Turkey, “transfromturkey” account and the newly established tugrealistic I would recommend to you. You can also find many product recommendations on trans pages on Instagram.

Unfortunately, there are no local companies for packers and realistics, as well as comfortable underwear use in our daily lives. There is no sector for trans people in our country yet. The firm that I recommend and my favorite is Rodeoh. You can see all products on their own sites and instagram. It has really high quality and helpful products. Pocket compartment for packer, special hole for intercourse, convenient use. You can understand when you look at the models. Unfortunately, the prices are a bit high for us, but you can talk and request a discount coupon. Another company only for boxer is Woxer. It is a company that started out and manufactures on the female body. Unfortunately, there is no domestic counterpart, but you can look at the models for the relationship and find solutions yourself at home. I guess you can achieve this by buying a narrow boxer, making a hole the size of the penis and stitching the edges? In normal boxer use, I recommend the brands John Frank and Jack Jones, whose designs I like, in terms of comfort and quality. They are really comfortable and do not bother the fabrics.

I want to say a few things about your relationships. Put ourselves in certain patterns

Article by @siriusea

Swedish Migration Agency Officers Loves Vacations

When you have lost all your expectations, you can only care about your life; I mean “breathing, eating and sleeping” without any feeling, like an animal.

I am a gay man from Turkey, the vacation paradise for most Europeans and tourists. I don’t know if we can calculate an “average human lifetime”, but if it were 75 years, I already spent 1/3rd of it hiding myself and begging for respect and acceptance in this paradise. I gladly accept that, okay, my country is geographically heavenly, but nobody should forget this: a place could only be livable when you know and love everyone who lives there.

I am a young gay who is not able to feel young anymore. I wasted 25 years of my life for just acceptance of others. I heard this kind of advice a million times from Swedes: “why do you care what others think, it’s your life…” But trying to get this acceptance is not for love, it’s about surviving.

Discrimination gets in the way of pride in daily life, and I experienced every kind of it. I was never able to be who I am in public, in school, with my family. I tried to live in different cities in Turkey before coming to Sweden. It was not easy to say goodbye to everything I had. Every city in Turkey has different kinds of people, who mostly think the same about gays. Some of them assessed me as a sinner, some of them as a pervert, some of them as a shame, some of them as worthless, but it was the very rare person I ever met in my life who assessed me as a human.

“But then, I was moving less to win their love and more to avoid my family.”

Swedes have also asked me many times “why is it such a big deal for the families, it’s none of their business”. Yes, in my paradise it is a big deal. “Disowning” and “discrimination” – these words sounded lovely to me, because at least they would have meant I wasn’t going to get murdered.

The police are liable to protect everyone in the country; I experienced that their “everyone” does not include me. Once I went to a police station after being attacked by four people in Istanbul – which is a metropolis and which should be more accepting than other cities – because for a moment I walked hand in hand with a man. They laughed at me, “what did you expect, of course they will throw bottles at you; you didn’t expect them to throw flowers did you?” … Did I?

Another time I spoke to police on a street in Istanbul in the early morning hours. They stopped me without any reason and one of them started to humiliate and bully me, saying the usual things. I was scared, but then I suddenly also was furious and I answered him “yes I am gay, I am a faggot, why – do you want to test what I am for yourself?”; I was up against a car the moment after that under the policeman’s hands. After these two lovely meetings with policemen, trusting the police is over for me.

At the Swedish migration board they asked if the Turkish courts can protect me. This is a country where a 13 year old girl, N.Ç., was raped by 26 different men, most older than her father. She had to have four surgeries because of it. The judge told her, “oh my daughter, why did you seduce these men?” He didn’t punish these men for rape. The court only sentenced them for having (consensual!) sex with a girl under the age of 15. It’s still kind of a nightmare for me. I can’t imagine the girl’s nightmares.

But think about it for a moment: if they can’t see that a 13-year-old girl is innocent and needs protection, how do you think they view an adult man like me, having sex with men?

I was studying to be a teacher, but it became impossible because of gossip spreading. Nobody saw me with a man, but gossip is enough to ruin you and put your life at risk. A career would now be impossible because according to them, nobody wants to work with a “bad role model, perverse, abject teacher”.

I will never be able to demand my family’s protection and love; their traditions and their religion are both on me. I am a dirt stain on their family tree, the family’s blood; the only way to clean this blood is by killing me. They can survive without me but they can’t survive without their priceless honour.

I tried to change these people, but their minds didn’t allow me; it goes too deep. I wasted 25 years just hiding reality. I need a little bit freedom, I need hold a man’s hand while I am walking, I need a measure of respect.

Now, tell me: how can I call this country a paradise, as lovely European vacationers did? Don’t speak about life in Turkey based on what travel guides say.

Anil Absolution

Laverne Cox

Laverne Cox (born May 29, 1972) is an American actress and LGBTI+ advocate. Featured as Sophia Burset in the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, she became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in any acting category. She is the first open transsexual shown.

In 2015, Laverne Cox won a Daytime Emmy Award for the Outstanding Private Class Special as executive producer of Presents: The T Word, becoming the first openly transgender woman to win this award.

In 2017, she became the first transgender person to play a transgender character on the TV broadcast as Cameron Wirth on CBS’s Doubt series.

The ‘Orange is the New Black’ star talks to The Hollywood Reporter about nearly quitting acting and why she’s chosen to use her latest awards nod to spotlight other trans performers.

When Laverne Cox turned 40 in May 2012, she was knee-deep in debt and ready to trade in the title of “actress” for “grad student.”

After 20 years of grinding out a career as a performer in New York, Cox had a conversation with a onetime co-worker from Lucky Cheng’s Restaurant & Bar, where she was working at the time. “They had just gone to school and were about to graduate from graduate school and they were like, ‘You need to go to school,’ ” she recalled. She agreed. “When I moved to New York City in 1993, I thought I would be a superstar in two, three years tops. That didn’t quite happen.”

Though she had some film and TV credits on her resume, it felt like the time had come to close the curtain. “It was a devastating realization. It’s like, OK, you’re 40 years old. Maybe that’s all God wanted for me in this business. Maybe this is all I’m supposed to do. Now I should just listen to what the universe seems to be telling me about this acting thing and try something else. Then I got this audition. It turns out that God had a different plan.”

That blueprint included a seven-year run playing Sophia Burset on the Netflix prison series Orange is the New Black, a role that has garnered the now-47-year-old three Emmy nominations for outstanding guest actress. It’s a historic feat — Cox was the first transgender performer ever nominated for an acting award — and one, she admits, she’s still processing. “The day it happened, I cried,” Cox told The Hollywood Reporter during a recent In Studio visit. “I was in London shooting a film [Jolt with Kate Beckinsale]. I was even more surprised about this one than the other two. If this is happening now, there has to be a bigger reason.”

Cox has decided that the reason should be for her to help shift the spotlight to other transgender performers in Hollywood. “The year when a show like Pose is on the air and I honestly thought I would no longer be the only trans person nominated for an acting Emmy. No other trans actors were nominated this year, I thought, okay, this is an opportunity to lift up those performances to talk about this,” she said. “Like, invite the Television Academy members to consider the brilliant work of some of the trans actors who are working on television. Certainly, you know, an Emmy should be about the work and the talent and what you’ve brought to the craft, but, you know, in 2019, why should there just be one trans person who’s been nominated for an acting Emmy?”

Even though it is her, Cox is not content claiming all the credit. “I share this nomination with everyone in our cast, in our crew. I love all of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you for seven incredible years,” she said. “Thank you, Jenji Kohan.”

Ellen Page Has Come Out As Trans & Non-binary

Elliot Page, the Oscar-nominated star of “Juno” and Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy,” has announced he is transgender.

Elliot, formerly known as Ellen Page, addressed his social media followers saying:

“Hi friends, I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot. I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life. I feel overwhelming gratitude for the incredible people who have supported me along this journey. I can’t begin to express how remarkable it feels to finally love who I am enough to pursue my authentic self. I’ve been endlessly inspired by so many in the trans community. Thank you for your courage, your generosity and ceaselessly working to make this world a more inclusive and compassionate place. I will offer whatever support I can and continue to strive for a more loving and equal society,” he wrote.

“I love that I am trans. And I love that I am queer. And the more I hold myself close and fully embrace who I am, the more I dream, the more my heart grows and the more I thrive. To all the trans people who deal with harassment, self-loathing, abuse, and the threat of violence every day: I see you, I love you, and I will do everything I can to change this world for the better,” Page continued.

Page uses both he/him and they/them pronouns, and describes himself as transgender and non-binary, meaning that his gender identity is neither man nor woman.