🚨 Cops RAID gay bars, arresting 63 people

Hello and TGIF. Here’s what’s on tap this weekend:

Plus: all the latest in gay travel news. Let's get into it. 👇

On September 13, Turkish police raided gay bars, LGBTQ+ rights offices, and activists' homes across Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, and Mersin, detaining at least 63 people, with prosecutors investigating 162 more.

They named the sweep "My Family Is Safe" and claimed it protects children from LGBTQ+ "content."

It's the same government that banned Istanbul Pride in 2015 and, just two months ago, blocked a Virgin Voyages gay cruise from docking over "moral values."

All while its tourism board keeps running sponsored influencer campaigns to sell the country as a bucket-list destination.

But is it actually safe to go? Same-sex activity is legal in Turkey, and it isn't.

The UK government's own travel advice threads that needle: "Same-sex sexual activity is legal in Turkey. However, many parts of Turkey are socially conservative and showing affection in public could receive unwelcome attention."

Translation: legal on paper, dangerous in practice, and getting worse by the week. If you're already booked, no PDA and no rainbow anything until you're home. If you're still deciding, ask yourself why a country needs a legal disclaimer before you can hold your partner's hand.

Two weeks ago, equalpride's CEO was telling staff to clear their calendars for Jay Katari, the new "Strategic Advisor, Growth & Innovation" who'd landed a board seat at the company behind The Advocate, Out, and Them.

Then, a queer freelance journalist actually looked him up.

The guy’s feed: MAGA hat photos, the whole Trump family on follow, Biden jokes, and a bio mocking trans people.

He'd also given $10,000 to a Utah attorney general who spent his career fighting same-sex marriage and trans kids in schools.

Once it was public, equalpride's own editors said they'd just found out too. The CEO's response wasn't to remove him — it was to explain that "not everything is always known about board members."

Katari resigned the next day anyway, with a statement about not wanting to cause "disruption" that mentioned exactly none of the above.

Nice vetting process.

This was all the buzz at the Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists convention last week in San Francisco — the annual gathering of LGBTQ+ journalists that wrapped just days before this story broke.

In response, a small group of queer journalists — and friends of ours — have been considering starting their own publication on queer news.

It would fully owned and operated by queer people, no MAGA people anywhere near the org chart.

We are trying to gage interest — would you read it?

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