Turkish authorities have banned a cruise ship carrying LGBT tourists from docking

Turkish authorities revoked the docking permit for the American cruise ship Scarlet Lady, which was carrying participants in a themed tour for the LGBT community. This decision was justified by the need to protect “family values” and uphold “moral standards,” which, according to the administration, are incompatible with the passengers’ lifestyle.CNN reported this.

As a result of the ban, the cruise organizers from Atlantis Events were forced to make last-minute changes to the ten-day itinerary, replacing the planned stops in Kusadasi and Istanbul with ports in Egypt and on the island of Crete. Company CEO Rich Campbell described the Turkish authorities’ actions as “staggering” and expressed dissatisfaction that the government is imposing restrictions based on tourists’ personal characteristics.

It is worth noting that of the 1,900 expected passengers on the cruise ship, the majority are U.S. citizens, and there are also travelers from the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia on board. Amid increasingly harsh rhetoric from Turkey’s ruling party toward the LGBT community, Istanbul law enforcement conducted raids on venues mentioned in the cruise’s promotional materials.

As a reminder, we previously reported that in the United Kingdom, gay men raped and killed a 13-month-old adopted child.