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LGBT
LGBT culture of Istanbul has been politically resisted. In 2010, Selma Aliye Kavaf, Turkish Minister of State, publicly stated that homosexuality was a biological sickness that required treatment. Despite the pushback, organizations like Lambda Istanbul and SPoD have made exhaustive efforts to rally the LGBT community in events such as the Gay Pride Istanbul, an event that has seen both progress and resistance since its first display in 2003. At Istanbul's pride march in 2003, there were roughly 30 participants and by 2014, the number of participants grew to over 100,000. The gay pride march has continued to rally participants but has been banned by the Turkish government since 2015. Though Istanbul is often cited as a highly heterosexist environment, LGBT human rights movements continue efforts to prohibit discrimination and encourage cultural development.

Due to the political and social climates surrounding the LGBT community of Istanbul, human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Freedom House and Human Rights Watch aim to monitor its cultural development. In the media, LGBT are often portrayed as perpetrators or victims of violent crime than as a part of the common daily life. This style of portrayal is seen in 'negative articles' that regenerate a negative image of LGBT One noteworthy cultural development is Istanbul's Queer slang language, Lubunca, which has evolved from periods of the Ottoman Empire and Turkish Republic. Lubunca can now be heard spoken publicly and continues to be studied since it's first known recordings in the 1980s.