in Europe (darker shade)  –  [Legend]Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in Turkey face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBTQ residents, though the overall situation is considered to be less repressive when compared to most other Muslim-majority countries.

[1] In 1858, the Ottoman Empire—the predecessor of the modern-day Republic of Turkey—adopted a new penal code, which no longer contained any explicit articles criminalizing homosexuality, sodomy, and köçeklik (young male slave dancers).

The love and affinity that were, in Istanbul, notoriously and customarily directed towards young men have now been redirected towards girls, in accordance with the state of nature.Research shows that the decline is in close relationship to the criminalization of homosexuality in the Western world, which followed repression of the queer community.

[5] In the 1980s, the national government, whether democratically elected or as a result of a coup d'état, opposed the existence of a visible LGBTQ community, especially within the political context.

However, many gay and bisexual men who lived during this period have since said in interviews that they felt pressured by social attitudes and government policy to remain in the closet about their sexual identity.

[6] In the 1980s, the Radical Democratic Green Party expressed support for gay rights, including the work of a group of transgender people to protest police brutality.

[33] In November 2016, Turkey, along with Georgia, Israel, Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, East Timor and Vietnam, were the only Asian countries in the United Nations to vote in favor of the appointment of an independent expert to raise awareness of the discrimination faced by the LGBTQ community and to find ways to properly protect them.

At the same time, Turkey – in violation of its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights – withholds any recognition of conscientious objection to military service.

[36] Some objectors must instead identify themselves as "sick" – and some were forced to undergo what Human Rights Watch calls "humiliating and degrading" examinations to "prove" their homosexuality.

[39] No laws exist in Turkey that protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in employment, education, housing, health care, public accommodations or credit.

In October 2009, the report of the EU Commission on Enlargement stated:[41] There have been several cases of discrimination at the workplace, where LGBTQ employees have been fired because of their sexual orientation.

[43] Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals are among the most vulnerable asylum seekers and refugees in Turkey today.

[45] In August 2013, three major political parties in the parliament including the secularist CHP which worked with BDP on the matter, conservative AKP and nationalist MHP, has agreed to provide constitutional protection against discrimination for LGBTQ people.

[46] In February 2015, the main opposition CHP introduced a bill to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in both public and private sectors.

The bill seeks equal recruitment, pay, promotion, dismissal in the workplace and reforms in the Turkish Armed Forces Code of Discipline that would allow members of the military to serve openly.

Barış Sulu, a candidate of the left-wing People's Democratic Party (HDP), became the first openly gay man to run for the Turkish parliament.

[48][49] In January 2019, the 34th Labor Court in Istanbul issued the first verdict in a legal case surrounding three men working at garbage who were fired by a municipality for allegedly engaging in a homosexual relationship with one of their co-workers.

His attorney had told the court that the plaintiff "had got nothing to do with that incident," while the company lawyers had claimed that his dismissal was part of "rightful termination" due to the sexual relationship at work.

In 2013, a Turkish vendor was charged with selling "immoral" DVDs because the DVD movies featured gay sexually explicit content.

He ruled that gay sex is natural, stated that an individual's sexual orientation should be respected, and cited examples of same-sex marriages in Europe and in the Americas.

[59] In 2017, the capital city of Ankara banned all LGBTQ or LGBTQ rights related events, under the pretext of providing "peace and security", with officials saying that such "exhibitions" could cause different groups of society to "publicly harbor hatred and hostility" towards each other; on the other hand news media noted that the ban came in the context of the steady erosion of civil liberties in Turkey following the failed 2016 coup attempt.

[77] Homosexuality is a taboo subject in Turkey and the culture of "honour killings" can be observed in some families murdering members (usually female) who engage in sexual behaviours regarded by some as morally inappropriate.

[80] The report documents how gay men and transgender people face beatings, robberies, police harassment, and the threat of murder.

[81] According to the research of KAOS GL, 27% of LGBTQ people who did not hide their sexual identity were discriminated against in the recruitment process in 2017, 8% in 2018, 11% in 2019.

The study stated that LGBTQ people, who think that the institutions they apply for are biased, are more inclined to hide their sexual identity, so this rate will be higher if the applicants open to employers.

[82][83][84][85] The major LGBTQ community-based civil rights organisation is KAOS GL, established in 1994 in Ankara by students including Yasemin Öz.

That ruling, sharply criticised by Human Rights Watch,[88] was finally overturned by the country's Supreme Court of Appeal on 22 January 2009.

April 1997, when members of Lambda Istanbul were invited to the National Congress on AIDS, marked the first time a Turkish LGBTQ organisation was represented at the government level.

The 2011 gathering attracted over 10,000 people, therefore making Gay Pride Istanbul the biggest march of its kind in the Muslim World.

[109][110] In 2019, for the fifth consecutive year the Istanbul Governor's Office yet again banned the LGBTQ Pride Parade, citing security concerns and public order.