Activists want minister tried in gay ´disease´ row

The complaint accused Family Affairs Minister Aliye Selma Kavaf of insult, incitement to crime and incitement to enmity and hate.

ISTANBUL, March 16, 2010 (AFP) - A Turkish gay rights group on Tuesday asked a prosecutor to put on trial a cabinet minister who said that homosexuality was a disease that should be treated.

The complaint by the LAMBDA association, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, accused Family Affairs Minister Aliye Selma Kavaf of insult, incitement to crime and incitement to enmity and hate -- crimes which are punishable by up to two, five and three years in jail respectively.

Kavaf "should apologise to lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transvestites and transsexuals in this country for her discriminatory statements that turn homosexuals into a target," Ruzgar Gokce, LAMBDA member, told reporters outside the Istanbul courthouse where the association filed the petition.

Some 60 activists denounced Kavaf and called for her resignation in a demonstration about 200 meters (yards) away from the courthouse, chanting "We are homosexuals, homophobia is a disease," and "Love, Freedom, No Room for Hate."

Firat Soyle, a lawyer for LAMBDA, said the complaint was only symbolic since the minister enjoys parliamentary immunity and will not face prosecution.

Kavaf, who is also women's minister in the Islamist-rooted government, said in a newspaper interview last weekend that she believed homosexuality was a "biological disorder, a disease."

"I think it should be treated," she told the mass-circulation Hurriyet daily.

Her remarks caused an outcry among the homosexual community, were generally criticised by the media and disowned by several figures from the ruling Justice and Development Party, including Health Minister Recep Akdag.

Same-sex relationships have never been criminalised in EU-hopeful Turkey as in other Muslim countries, but there are no laws protecting homosexual rights and prejudice against gays and lesbians remains strong in daily life.

Police are notoriously harsh against transsexual prostitutes. Several of them have been killed in "hate murders" in recent years.