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.”