Londoners sang, danced and waved flags to mark Pride Day while their Istanbul counterparts were dispersed with teargas and rubber bullets. The Turkish scene turned violent when participants brandishing rainbow flags chanted against “the fascism” of the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the conservative president.
The crowd was forcefully broken up by police, with some officers firing rubber pellets into the crowd to accelerate the process. In a statement on Facebook, the Istanbul LGBTI Pride Week Committee said the Istanbul Governor’s office had suddenly banned the parade, “using the month of Ramadan as the reason without any announcement”. The committee added that plastic bullets were also used: “police are attacking tens of thousands of people with pepper spray, plastic bullets, and water cannon.” 
Turkey is home to one of the largest LGBTI communities in the region, but its members continue to face discrimination from their government. In 2010, former Minister of State Responsible for Women and Family Affairs Selma Aliye Kavaf said:
“I believe homosexuality is a biological disorder, a disease. It needs to be treated.” Homosexuality is legal in Turkey, unlike in several neighbouring countries, but there is still no law protecting the LGBTI community from discrimination. Same-sex unions are not legal, and homosexual and transgender individuals are banned from compulsory military service. Members of the community continue “to face discrimination in employment and in interactions with the state authorities,” an Amnesty International report said last year. “No progress was made [by Turkey] in bringing provisions to prohibit discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity into the Constitution or into domestic law.
” Meanwhile in London, the streets were awash with a rainbow of colour as thousands attended the annual pride parade, with more than 250 groups taking part in the three-and-a-half-hour parade that ended at Whitehall. There was additional security in the wake of yesterday’s terror attacks in France, Tunisia and Kuwait, with the Met’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball saying they would lay on extra security “to help protect and reassure the public”. Ruth Hunt, chief executive of Stonewall, said Pride is “a wonderful event that celebrates LGBT equality and how far we’ve come”, adding: “However, we must not lose sight of how much is left to do.
“The number of reported LGBT hate crimes is on the rise across the UK, our Government must address trans law reform, LGBT people are still being bullied in school and isolated at work, and overseas many Prides either take place under armed guard or not at all. “In fact, it’s illegal to be gay in 75 countries and punishable by death in ten.” 
Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling which gives same-sex couples the right to marry anywhere in all 50 states across America, was welcomed by British Olympic diver Tom Daley. The 21-year-old athlete, who came out two years ago by posting a video online explaining that he was in a relationship with director and producer Dustin Lance Black, said the American ruling is “a massive step”.
“I think the rest of the world will look at that, and try and make that the same for all their countries too,” he told Pink News, adding that he thinks the whole of the UK will have “full equality” in the next decade. Currently gay marriage is legal across Great Britain but not in Northern Ireland. 
