Actually, I think they are doing it right. Turkey has mandatory military service. Don't want to do your civic duty? Be gay, but be prepared to prove it.

Well, so much for the posturing by Draugnar about being pro-gay rights.

There's something a bit wrong to have to show it with graphic pictures though.

Turkey is relatively on the bright side. There are countries where they give you no choice but to serve or be dishonorably discharged. They rate homosexuality equal to being mentally handicapped.

@Putin - It's Turkey we are talking about. There is no such thing as rights for *anyone* over in the Muslim world. This is actually more progressive than what Shiara law would allow, so it is a step in the right direction compare dot, say, cutting off their heads for being gay. And, while it may be embarassing, it gives real homosexuals an out that doesn't allow wimps like you who wouldn't want to do their civic duty the option to abuse. If they didn't require proof, they'd have every conscript claiming they were gay to get out. Turkey doesn't say you can't be gay and serve. They say you can't be *openly* gay and serve. Want to serve? Keep it in the closet for your tour of duty and you can. Want to get out of doing your duty? Fine, but be prepared to prove it.

I agree to an extent with Draug and Celtic. If one can take a step back from the situation and pretend that there's a list of things that are reasons you may avoid military service, and that homosexuality is on that list, then of course you would need to prove it just as you would need to prove a physical impairment or psychological impairment. Since we do not have a litmus test for homosexuality that a doctor can sign off on like (s)he can one of the two other mentionable, standard reasons to avoid service, then there does need to be some proof for the orientation.

However, I also agree that such graphic pictures are not necessarily the best way to measure whether one is genuine or not, primarily because the article describes homosexuality as being a shameful status in Turkish culture and that these pictures are often used to shame individuals to their relatives, friends, and other loved ones, and strangers. Curiously, then, this shame is not coupled with laws against the orientation.

If you didn't know Turkey's constitution mandates a secular government. Maybe that's why.

The article also mentions that Turkey has the biggest Gay pride parades in the Islamic world... but only in the urban areas (ank and con) most of the country is still living in the past.

I like how this compares to the US don't ask don't tell... it would put Turkey at the top of the list of Islamic countries while putting the US next to it (at the bottom of the Western 'Christian' countries)

A suggestion, let gay Turkish males join a 'gay unit' - the complaint about needing seperate dorms and showers is bollox, especially when you have 400,000 conscripts, you easily have hundreds of shower blocks and dorms already, just assigned a few bases for all the gay recruits, and then they can have their privacy and serve their duty...

Of course i think having alternative civic duty options would be less repressive, like fire-figthing, admin, teaching etc. (i'm sure there is a justification that the women do their civic duty by giving birth... weird thought that...)