In Turkey, military service is mandatory for men over 20 years of age, but if proof of any type of illness, disability or that the young man in question is gay is presented, he is automatically exempt. Some go through humiliating situations to escape the Army.
"They asked me if I liked football, if I wore women's clothes or perfume. I had been unshaven for a few days and I'm a more masculine gay man. They told me I didn't look like a normal gay man," he said. Ahmet to the BBC.
The questions also involved preferences in bed. "They asked me when I had my first anal intercourse and if I practice oral sex", said the young man of around 20 years old. The military asked Ahmet to take a photo dressed as a woman, but he refused and instead showed a photo kissing another man. Only then did he get the so-called "pink certificate".
It is not the first time that a man has had to show a photo with another man to be dismissed in Turkey. In the late 1990s, Gokhan gave an explicit photo to the military. "Your face must be visible. And the photos must show you as the passive one," he said of the photo requirement.
