President Erdogan Of Turkey Complains Of ‘LGBT Colors’ At UN

Turkey’s virulently anti-LGBTQ President Tayyip Erdogan had a hissy fit on Thursday, saying he was “uncomfortable” with the United Nations building being decorated with what he described as “LGBT colors.” In fact, what Erdogan saw was not the rainbow Pride flag but the 17 different colors associated with the Sustainable Development Goals, which were used throughout the building for a summit held at the U.N. earlier this week. https://twitter.com/michellenichols/status/1704988014328344620 Via Reuters:

“One of the issues that bothers me the most … is that when entering the United Nations General Assembly, you see the LGBT colors on steps and other places,” Erdogan was quoted as saying by broadcaster Haberturk and others.

“How many LGBT are there in the world right now? However much right they have on these steps, those against LGBT have as much right as well,” said Erdogan, who has frequently labeled members of the LGBTQ community as “deviants” and particularly toughened his rhetoric during his election campaign this year.

While Guterres has been a vocal supporter of LGBTQ rights and spoken out about discrimination, there are no rainbow Pride colors at U.N. headquarters promoting LGBTQ rights.

Under Erdogan’s leadership, Turkey has grown increasingly hostile to the LGBTQ community there. Read the full report here.

colors can be very frightening to dictators.

— Scott (@ArchAtLast) September 22, 2023