Thousands gathered in the conservative heart of Istanbul Sunday to urge the government to change its laws to protect the family by penalizing homosexuality and banning activities that support the LGBTQ movement. 

The Big Family Gathering, which was attended by about 150 conservative nongovernmental organizations from across Turkey, called on the government to close down LGBTQ associations; prevent any action or expression of support for homosexuality in public space; ban LGBTQ “propaganda,” particularly that which targets children on-screen; and penalize “all perverse movements that undermine traditional family values.”  

The petition, titled “Protect your family and generation from perversity,” was signed by 150,000 people, according to Kursat Mican, chairman of the Islamo-nationalist Unity of Opinion and Struggle Platform, which organized the gathering. 

The gathering in the conservative district of Fatih is the latest one in Turkey's growing barrage of anti-gay words and deeds. Though homosexuality is constitutionally legal in Turkey and it had been de-penalized in the mid-19th century during the Ottoman Empire, local and international groups express woes about growing hate speech toward the LGBTQ community, particularly in the last seven years. For example, the LGBTQ rights group ILGA Europe ranked Turkey second to last — just ahead of Azerbaijan — in its review of 49 European and Central Asian countries in its 2020 report. These include statements from Turkey’s head of religious affairs who accused homosexuals of “spreading the disease” at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic or President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who told people not to listen to “lesbians-schmesbians.”