New Ankara Gazette,
Tahir Kurtar, Staff Writer
In a vote of 325-73, with 2 abstentions, the Grand National Assembly has formally approved a national ban on so-called "conversion therapy services," as now proffered by various religiously motivated "counselors," which largely appeal to traditionalist families, especially in the provinces, who resent what one deputy called a "dangerously rapid growth of the homosexual and transvestite subculture in our cities." Given the controversial nature of the issue, which affected the religious beliefs and morals of many devout Muslims, Christians, and Magi, the various party caucuses were permitted to vote freely without any pressure from the leadership of most parties.
Even so, there was a distinct pattern, wherein more of the Social Republicans, Democratic Unionists, and other centrist or rightist deputies, voted against the bill, whereas Social Democrats almost to a man voted in favor of it. Even more than a few of the DUP and Social Republican deputies approved of it, thus reflecting a split in both parties on this issue. The overall public sentiment was in favor of the bill, but many clerics campaigned loudly against it, even holding rallies in the past few weeks in various, mostly rural, locales to oppose it. They were not, however, able to mobilize enough opposition to a bill that doesn't outlaw anti-homosexual feelings, "just coercive methods to force people to abandon their natural sexuality."
A particular controversy about the ban was due to the belief among some more conservative deputies that "feminists were recruiting young women to reject men and embrace lesbian separatism, taking only other women as sexual and romantic partners." While many prominent feminists and avowed lesbians denied this, the myth persisted in many circles, along with the accompanying belief that this created a danger of fewer Othmanis. Some even claimed that this was a Gloria Regian, Deadoran, or Shrailleeni plot to "subvert Othmani civilization and reduce our numbers, as part of a plan to weaken us, divide the sexes from each other, and prepare us for colonization, occupation, and indoctrination as some new matriarchal puppet state of one of these misandrist civilizations, also using our disarmament against us, knowing that it is harder to defend our country, our fatherland, under the present Treaty. They are trying to soften us up for conquest."
A spokesman for the Othmani National Women's Congress categorically denied this, and reminded deputies, and the people, in public hearings over such rumors, that, "even if someone does invade us over a desire to forcibly turn New Othman into some kind of vassal matriarchy, the Treaty requires the other signatories to come to our defense, particularly those in the CPO." President Gozde Polat in particular dismissed such notions, calling them, "misogynistic fantasies used to justify persecution of lesbians and feminists, when most are committed to gender equality, and also exploited nationalistic resentment of the Treaty of Beaulieu, a revanchist desire to revoke the disarmament and DMZ clauses in particular. We are not as vulnerable as they would suppose. We simply concentrate on defensive military formations rather than offensive ones."
Tahir Kurtar, Staff Writer
In a vote of 325-73, with 2 abstentions, the Grand National Assembly has formally approved a national ban on so-called "conversion therapy services," as now proffered by various religiously motivated "counselors," which largely appeal to traditionalist families, especially in the provinces, who resent what one deputy called a "dangerously rapid growth of the homosexual and transvestite subculture in our cities." Given the controversial nature of the issue, which affected the religious beliefs and morals of many devout Muslims, Christians, and Magi, the various party caucuses were permitted to vote freely without any pressure from the leadership of most parties.
Even so, there was a distinct pattern, wherein more of the Social Republicans, Democratic Unionists, and other centrist or rightist deputies, voted against the bill, whereas Social Democrats almost to a man voted in favor of it. Even more than a few of the DUP and Social Republican deputies approved of it, thus reflecting a split in both parties on this issue. The overall public sentiment was in favor of the bill, but many clerics campaigned loudly against it, even holding rallies in the past few weeks in various, mostly rural, locales to oppose it. They were not, however, able to mobilize enough opposition to a bill that doesn't outlaw anti-homosexual feelings, "just coercive methods to force people to abandon their natural sexuality."
A particular controversy about the ban was due to the belief among some more conservative deputies that "feminists were recruiting young women to reject men and embrace lesbian separatism, taking only other women as sexual and romantic partners." While many prominent feminists and avowed lesbians denied this, the myth persisted in many circles, along with the accompanying belief that this created a danger of fewer Othmanis. Some even claimed that this was a Gloria Regian, Deadoran, or Shrailleeni plot to "subvert Othmani civilization and reduce our numbers, as part of a plan to weaken us, divide the sexes from each other, and prepare us for colonization, occupation, and indoctrination as some new matriarchal puppet state of one of these misandrist civilizations, also using our disarmament against us, knowing that it is harder to defend our country, our fatherland, under the present Treaty. They are trying to soften us up for conquest."
A spokesman for the Othmani National Women's Congress categorically denied this, and reminded deputies, and the people, in public hearings over such rumors, that, "even if someone does invade us over a desire to forcibly turn New Othman into some kind of vassal matriarchy, the Treaty requires the other signatories to come to our defense, particularly those in the CPO." President Gozde Polat in particular dismissed such notions, calling them, "misogynistic fantasies used to justify persecution of lesbians and feminists, when most are committed to gender equality, and also exploited nationalistic resentment of the Treaty of Beaulieu, a revanchist desire to revoke the disarmament and DMZ clauses in particular. We are not as vulnerable as they would suppose. We simply concentrate on defensive military formations rather than offensive ones."
