ISTANBUL ¨C When Yasemin Oz, a lesbian lawyer in Istanbul, heard President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claiming victory after a runoff election Sunday, she said she feared for the future. In his speech, he declared ¡°family is sacred for us¡± and insisted that LGBTQ people would never ¡°infiltrate¡± his governing party.
They were familiar themes, heard often throughout Erdogan¡¯s campaign for re-election: He frequently attacked LGBTQ people, referring to them as ¡°deviants¡± and saying they were ¡°spreading like the plague.¡± But Oz said she had hoped it was just electioneering to rally the president¡¯s conservative base.
¡°I was already worried about what was to come for us,¡± said Oz, 49. But after the speech, she thought, ¡°it will get harsher.¡±
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