Access to LGBT Sites Restricted in Parliament

The Presidency of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) complicated access to the websites of KaosGL and LambdaIstanbul, two organizations for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual individuals (LGBT). Both organizations are on the "black list" of forbidden sites issued by the Telecommunication Communication Presidency (TİB).

The people in parliament who tried to access these sites received warnings on their screen like "restricted access", "homosexuality" and "fill in the form required for your work". Once the user skipped the warnings, a written form has to be filled in before access is admitted. Outside the parliament, both websites can be accessed as usual.

According to Akşam newspaper, personal data is compulsory for accessing the sites via the internet connection of the parliament. The form includes fields for the full name of the user, the person's registration number, profession, e-mail address, telephone number and the reason for the requested access. These fields must not be left blank, otherwise access will not be permitted.

The Parliamentary General Secretariat announced that the filter was a technical issue. Hence, the security program automatically restricts access to websites that include words banned in the scope of the "family package", i.e. pornography or homosexuality.

Parliamentary question submitted

This restriction made the headlines after a study on discrimination and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transvestite and transsexual individuals carried out by Aylin Nazlıaka, Ankara Deputy of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).

Nazlıaka refused to fill in the form after access to the KaosGL and LambdaIstanabul websites was denied. Instead, she submitted a parliamentary question addressed to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

In her motion she questions, "The discriminative implementations against LGBT individuals is contrary to the constitution. What kind of measures is the government going to take against this discrimination?"

Nazlıaka has not received a response yet.

Kaos GL Co-ordinator Ali Erol criticized that the application equalled censorship.

"The official site of our association is not included on the black list of TİB. The access restriction in parliament is discriminatory and equals censorship. This indicates that the reality of homosexuality in Turkey is not being recognized". (IC/VK)