Censorship of Gay Sites
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Turkey’s two largest gay and lesbian Internet communities, hadigayri.com and gabile.com, have been shut down by the Turkish Telecom Directorate. The newly-created body is permitted to shut down websites without a court order if it believes they violate the Turkish law in any form. The web sites have more than 200,000 members combined. According to its administrators and members, the sites do not contain any criminal or even pornographic content. The directorate blocked the sites without providing any information to the owners or issuing a demand to take down certain content, site mangers said, calling the action unlawful and arbitrary. Read the full story at Pink News Those who get into a rant about censorship in Muslim countries should keep something in mind ‘tho: Many Western states are about to build a web censorship system right now and those who already have one do block mostly gay websites instead of Child Porn, while the latter is the alleged reason behind the whole enterprise. And in times where portraits of fully clothed teenagers are called “child porn” it won’t take long till sites like this will end up on such lists (we had the honour to be on the Australian “child porn” censor list with Count Candy for a while already). |
The worst case, of course, is when some countries don’t even have to come up with such censorship laws – like the USA – because their local companies are so hysterical about everything that doesn’t fit into the norm that its gets deleted anyways. Blogger is a good example here, they started to delete hundreds of perfectly legal gay blogs in August and no, we’re not talking about blogs like milkboys but about blogs with buff 30 year olds.
about 5 months ago
This is really quite shocking, I would really miss Milkboys if it was shut down (well, I was when it did that time) but this is possibly worse, I read on Pink news (in the article or the comments) that these sites were the only place for gay people in Turkey to communicate and then they shut it down. It’s not as bad as some of the countries who make it illegal but it with the possible suffering and suicide that may follow it, is not far.
about 5 months ago
I disagree that it’s shocking. Disturbing yes, but shocking? Fuck no. You’re living under a rock if you think half the countries in the world even want to acknowledge that gay people even exist. It’s not surprising they’re targeting our websites.
about 5 months ago
It’s so sad, that some people think it is good citizenship to play private police.
In Holland today our minister of Justice wants us to spy on other fellow Dutchmen when they go on holiday to contries like the Philipines or Thailand, and report anything suspicious to the authorities at Schiphol when they get home.
Does that not sound very much like the STASI practices?
or those of members of the Dutch NAZI party back in WWII ?
I’m not saying there is anything wrong with boycotting NIKE and many other fashion brands for abusing children in factories in the far east, though. I think that is just as appalling as misuse for sexual purposes.
Ad
http://www.queerlog.nl
about 5 months ago
Don’t panick! Who wants to see 30yo Schwarzeneggers?
about 5 months ago
What private companies do is nobody’s business but their own – the beauty of that is free markets abhor a vaccuum -what Blogger taketh away, somebody else will open up. But government censorship is a whole ‘nuther thing. Inspired by a phrase from the Roman Senator Cato the Elder, “ISLAM DELENDA EST.”
about 5 months ago
It has nothing to do with Islam, the same thing is happening in “Christian” countries all over the world.
about 5 months ago
You are so right. Living in a conservative religious community and working in that environment is scary sometimes.
about 5 months ago
Well it’s a post about homophobia, but I’d hoped that any victim of it would be aware that any phobia does not help the discussion. It’s not Islam that should be destroyed, but any fanaticism including among the Christian religions.
about 5 months ago
This desire of America wanting to destroy Islam is very much one the world can do without.
I see a real link between the false war on terror and the false war on the internet under the guise of “Won’t somebody please think of the children”, both of them aimed at taking away our rights.
Time to stop with the Islam fear-mongering I think.
Oh, and Josh, Milkboys IS on the Australian Government Verbotten list. How do you think i found it :P
about 5 months ago
We are who we are, at the edge of revolution, without wanting to be so. From birth we are in an enemy camp. There is nothing so alone as facing adolescence and discovering that we do not fit. Nothing so sad as setteling for single, when family and friends expect something more… and their better. No one so angry, as we unacknowledged, remembering and aging past anyone’s lust.
And we are the past, when expectation was certainty. When we said “Make Love Not War,” and truly believed love would end war forever. When we marched and dreamed of gay rights, the right to be whole.
We are the present, when gays still wonder why sites are ended, unaware of a time when such would get you beaten. Rail against the establishment…be angry or you’re not paying attention.
And we are the furture, belonging to the few, the rich enough, the clever enough to hide.
But we choose not to hide. We include all our gay brothers and sisters as we create our own families. Make all sites, all places, open to all ideas, all images, all possibilities. All open. Be more. Demand more.
Find that open field where all can be seen and heard. Create that field if you can not find it. There is a place for us. It is our own.
about 5 months ago
I am still able to log into http://www.hadigayri.com.
about 5 months ago
Do you connect from Turkey?
about 5 months ago
I’m of Turkish and German decent and I’m so sad about this :(
It really makes no sense.
I hope Milkboys isn’t shut down, otherwise where would I get my daily dose of beautiful boys?
But I don’t think it will be….
about 5 months ago
As long as society thinks gay people are deviant, this problem will not go away. I get so tired or counseling teens who are gay in religious homes, to help them see they are not “perverts.” I wish the straight community would hold themselves to the same standards they press upon the gay community.
about 5 months ago
I’m afraid the Golden Age of the Internet is over. Up ahead is the new Dark Ages…
about 5 months ago
I read this on a financial site, of all places, yesterday. This belongs here too:
“The Romans were right; they should have put every practicing Judeo-Christian to the sword. The advent of Christianity and its wholesale adoption by the West has set us back 1000 years: science, art, learning everything went backwards, skills were lost, and it was the Christians who were intolerant of other religions and beliefs and refused and persecuted others for believing otherwise. The Romans must be judged not by the standards of today but by the standards of the ancient world, and by the standards of the ancient world they were very tolerant and inclusive and that is the real secret to how they ruled such a vast empire for as long as they did since it is not possible to do this by military means alone. I hope all Christians burn in hell. Three cheers for Judas!”
about 5 months ago
We must all keep each other posted on what’s what in different countries, different cultures, different lands. It most assuredly helps to hear others’ views of what is transpiring in their countries, and forums such as this provide excellent interchanges.
It brings to mind the most recent movie about Harvey Milk (“Milk”, by Gus Van Sant) wherein many good one-liners and excerpts reverberate through my mind when I hear of gay rights travails in many other countries, not just my own.
I personally believe that truth eventually pervails, but it almost always a hard-won fight, and rarely a short one. I help w/ rallies in my (Southern Calif) area, put in time on Gay Pride when I can, help with fund-raisers, go on marches, and try to set a good example personally.
There is much to do, and my heart personally goes out to all of you all every front.
about 5 months ago
And on some filters in the Netherlands milkboys is considered pornography, as it’s proven by my schoolfilter when I tried to view the board.
about 5 months ago
luckily there are some good things to mention here too, like the speech of Barack Obama last weekend:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leQarSfzT6A pt 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhkrrjbPQtE pt 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdjJRBpKIHM pt 3
if you have the time, watch it, it will leave you with some good feeling
it all goes awfully slow, but at least the promiss is still there,
and it’s heart – warming to see Obama take half an hour to just talk about us.
the anti hate crime bill will be signed
dont ask dont tell will be scrapped
“while there will be setbacks and bumps along the road, the truth is that our commom ideals are a force far stronger than any devision that some might sow. These ideals voiced by generations of citizens are what made it possible for me to stand here today and for the people in this room to live freely and openly when for most of history that would have been inconceivable. Day by day, law by law, changing mind by mind: that’s the promiss we are fulfilling. thank you HRC for the work you’re doing”
about 5 months ago
@ adje
wow, the words alone that you excerpted above are quite a force in themselves. impressive. they are good words, to be sure. and, not to be a nay-sayer here, i hope that he indeed has the force of will to stand his ground because although we can rally behind his words, there are definitely those that won’t, and will fight – as they have – very hard also.
wonderful post, josh, and to all who commented.
about 5 months ago
have had my fair share of censorship to deal with the past year as well:
a video report on the Tom of Finland art fair that I had shot in L.A. and placed on Youtube was flagged by fanatics as inapropriate some months ago. To save my acount I had to delete it myself. That is how youtube forces you into self censorship. I felt is was quite innocent and certainly not pornographic .
Have just put the 1st part of it (the artists reception) back online on http://vimeo.com/6890636
If that goes well I’ll also replace the 2 9 minit clips op the exhibition itself there.
For those who don’t know, both Blogger or Blogspot and Youtube are Google companies.
Google also researches their mail service and their online office apps; who knows what we can expect there.
about 5 months ago
The picture you used is by bellz – http://www.bellz.deviantart.com
and the picture originally didn’t have ‘gay’ on it so idk who edited it XD but credit should be posted =]
about 4 months ago
they have been opened. by tib.gov.tr
Turk Gay Club is 3th Bigest Community too.
http://www.turkgayclub.com