Turkish officials reportedly ordered children to stop drawing rainbows, claiming it was a ploy to turn them gay

• Turkish officials reportedly told school principals to forbid students from drawing rainbows and attaching them to windows, claiming the project was a ploy to turn children gay.
• The effort, led by the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, was meant to "instill hope" and celebrate the "miracle of nature" amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
• In a sermon last month, the leader of Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate said homosexuality brought "disease and corrupt generations," calling the nation to unite against it.
• Turkish schools have been closed since March 12 and will be closed at least until the end of May.
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Officials in Turkey reportedly directed school principals to forbid school children from drawing rainbows and displaying them in windows because they feared it was an effort by the LGBT community to turn children gay.

According to Al-Monitor, a US-based news outlet that covers the Middle East, the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art on March 28 called on schoolchildren, who were forced out of classrooms due to COVID-19, to draw rainbows and attach them to their windows in order to show the "miracle of nature" and to "instill hope" during the ongoing pandemic, according to the museum.

Egitim-Sen, a teachers' trade union, said local education leaders told school principals to forbid children from participating in the museum's project, arguing that drawing the rainbows was a ploy to turn children gay, according to Al-Monitor.

The incident was the latest in Turkish officials using the ongoing pandemic to continue its anti-LGBT messaging.

During a sermon delivered during the holy month of Ramadan on April 24, Ali Erbas, the leader of Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate, said that Islam condemns both adultery and homosexuality because they "bring disease and corrupt generations." He added that "hundreds of thousands" of people are exposed to HIV every year as a result of homosexuality and adultery, according to the report.

"Come and let's fight together to protect people from such evil," Erbas said.

According to Human Rights Watch, a prosecutor's office in the nation's capital city of Ankara opened a criminal investigation into the Ankara Bar Association after it filed a complaint against Erbas' anti-LGBT remarks. It claimed the Bar Association had insulted "the religious values adopted by a part of the public" in filing its complaint.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended Erbas' remarks, calling any attacks of Erbas attacks on the state, according to The New York Times.

Turkey has prohibited LGBT events, including the annual Pride Parade in Istanbul, since 2015, according to Human Rights Watch, and students from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara are currently on trial for organizing a campus Pride Parade last year.

There have been at least 129,491 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in Turkey, and at least 3,520 deaths as a result, according to data analyzed by Johns Hopkins University.

Turkish schools have been shuttered since March 12 when the nation reported its first case of COVID-19. At the end of April, Education Minister Ziya Selcuk announced schools would remain closed through the month of May.

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