The English language channel of Turkey’s state-run broadcaster, TRT World, has announced that its international digital platform will soon air an anti-LGBT documentary series, referring to the community as “the LGBT lobby” and claiming to “reveal the dark side of gender ideology.”
TRT World announced on Thursday that the platform would soon release “True Colours,” a documentary series featuring the stories of “those who have been affected by the spread of gender ideology and the LGBT lobby.”
A new digital series exclusive to TRT World, “True Colours” explores the untold stories of those who have been affected by the spread of gender ideology and the LGBT lobby. Coming soon to our digital platforms pic.twitter.com/kKcAacIASB
— TRT World (@trtworld) February 8, 2024
The trailer for the series includes comments of people participating in the documentary.
“They’re teaching magical rainbow glitter unicorns. They are not actually teaching the facts about what this gender identity is. … They were older, presumably pedophiles preying on a young child,” a woman whose face is covered with a mask says in the video, referring to “the LGBT lobby.”
“I feel like they have put women’s rights on the back burner,” the woman says, while another argues that “the West needs to wake up and start thinking about what its priorities are.”
In the video the LGBT movement is referred to as “totalitarian” and “a hugely profitable industry.”
Since TRT is funded by taxpayers’ money, its use of public funds to target a group of people in the society has attracted criticism.
Although homosexuality has been legal throughout modern Turkey’s history, it is widely frowned upon by large swaths of society, including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), and gay people regularly face harassment and abuse. Same-sex couples are not legal in the country.
Turkey’s far-right and Islamist politicians use highly defamatory discourse against the LGBTI+ community, with Erdoğan and other AKP politicians frequently accusing them of threatening traditional family values.
According to a report by LGBT+ advocacy group KAOS GL, the country’s LGBT+ community feels threatened under the AKP government.
Turkey was ranked 48th among 49 countries as regards the human rights of LGBT people, according to the 2023 Rainbow Europe Map published by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA)-Europe.
In 2021, the government withdrew from the Istanbul Convention on protecting women’s rights, claiming it encouraged homosexuality and threatened the traditional family structure.
Throughout 2023, the government banned nearly all events organized by the LGBTI+ community and sent police to detain the attendees.