Gay games open in Berlin

"Respect Gaymes," a Berlin sports event meant to promote tolerance towards homosexuals, opened on Saturday amid controversy with a Turkish football player refusing to be part of the advertising campaign after being the target of slurs and ridicule.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier opened the fourth edition of the annual sports and cultural event in Berlin's Jahn Park stadium on Saturday. The centrepiece of the three-week long event is a football tournament with 58 youth teams.

But this year's event has been overshadowed by controversy after Erkut Ergiligür, a footballer at the traditional Berlin club Türkiyemspor, said he no longer wants to advertise for Respect Gaymes after facing continuing discrimination for appearing on the event's poster.

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Far from been an isolated homophobic case, this situation serves as a great example (if not one as one more tangible proof) that Turkey is far from ready to be a part of the European Union -not that the Baltic states or Poland (to mention just a few already EU members) fare any better.
Gay organizations participate actively in protests against anti-Turkish/anti-Muslim political organization Pro-Köln, not only because many of the gay residents in Cologne are gay or lesbian but because by nature they are situated opposite extremism.
It is sad to think that these gay groups could be part of an "integration" process where German culture and society will have to adapt to Turkish/Islamic values and not the other way around.

FrankSchreier: You got it wrong. What does Turkey have to do with Turks in Germany? Nothing. The Turkish immigrant population is NOT a cross-section of Turkish society. You won't find many doctors, teachers and musicians among immigrants, because they can do much better at home. Instead, you'll find the most traditional, backwards yet physically strong people, for whom moving from their village to a Turkish city was just as hard as emigrating.
I don't know how well Turkey is prepared to join the EU, but judging them by what you see among immigrants is simply stupid.

Frank Schreier, you got it right!
- Yes, a Turkish person regretting being a poster boy for a gay event and refusing to be taken advantage of (they don't pay him after all) is representative of all the homophobic Turks. A German person would never hesitate to become a poster boy (you wouldn't mind for example, would you?) as no one would ever ridicule them in their private lives because they are surrounded only by Germans, who are higher beings that deserve to be in EU, not like the low-life like Turks who don't.
- Yes, this poster boy explicitly asks for the Germans to adapt to the Turkish or God forbid the Islamic values! How dare!!!
- Yes, all the Turks hate homosexuals, whereas all the Germans love homosexuals.

LMB222, you got it wrong. Schreier is right - most Turks in germany are NOT immigrants, in case that has somehow escaped your attention. The vast majority was born here, but retain ties to Turkish society and go home frequently. As Schreier says, Turkey is far from being ready to be included in the EU for many reasons, not the least alarming of which is extreme homophobia, which is absolutely rampant among young Turks here AND in Turkey. You might want to get out and read up on the subject sometime...
As for the Poles, Baltic states, and Bulgarians, too... if there had been preconditions such as demonstrating a reduction in homophobia, racism, and reducing bashing and personal assaults based on sexuality, as well as a close examination of local attitudes towards these issues in those countries before granting them admission to the EU, not one of them would have been accepted.

"Respect Gaymes"? How can I respect you when you wear a plush, rainbow penis on your head?
Put on a business suit and go to work like the rest of us. It's no wonder gays have to work so hard for respect. You cannot ask others to respect you until you have respect for yourself. IMO, it's the 1% that screws it up for the other 99%.

What are you talking about? Rainbow penis? Am i missing something?

@ airborne1092
Yes, clearly. Anyone who defines themselves primarily on their sexual preferences is disordered, no matter how strange the preference. This is exactly what homosexuals are doing here, though.These gay pride days don't define homosexuality as normal or natural, but actually reinforce the fact that there is something wrong here, and therefore these events are necessary for support.

I agree with Airborne and the others! YES, Iam sick of taking my kids for a walk and running into the yearly gay pride parade where some twit with a rainbow penis on his head is satisfying a thai she male on the middle of the street!!! Forget all this, does it shock most people that there are some people out there who do not embrace these kinds of things!? The world has gone PC mad, sheesh and I have done some wild things in life like wander around the USA following Jerry Garcia and The grateful Dead around for years, its pretty sad by todays standards Iam considered conservative, but forget all this pc nonsense, wake up and smell the coffee!

It's once a year!! Get over yourself - or do you only go walking with your kids whenever gay pride parades are on??

Your children must be very healthy, what with regularly walking from Köln to Berlin...

If a yearly event really disturbs you so much, maybe you should move back to the land where they still lynch people for being gay, and your children can grow up to be good little bigots.

Airborne,

So are you telling me because someone is gay, they don't 'go to work like the rest of us'? Quit stereotyping du arsch.

wonderful, a simple story about a footballer (who is presumably gay himself) wishing to have an image that has been used to promote the gay games for two years because he is being targetted for abuse (wouldn't be the first time that has happened - remember Justin Fashanu?) turns into a TT thread with misguided and ignorant attacks on both Turks and gay people. I hope you are proud of yourselves.

Better than sanctimonious bores droning on though, don't you think?