To boycott Turkey and Egypt after homophobic action against cruise ship?

[Holdonforsummer]

Now Egypt has turned away a cruise ship full of LGBT passengers, following in the footsteps of Turkey who had already barred them from docking. Egyptian authorities haven’t stated an official reason but Turkey clearly stated it was because the passengers on the ship didn’t confirm to their society’s ‘moral’ standards. I find this disgusting and outrageous that any country thinks they can start to pick and choose which categories of tourists they will and won’t accept. I for one will now boycott Turkey and Egypt and will not book holidays there in the future. I refuse to support homophobic regimes and feel that the only thing that might change their mind is if many other UK citizens do the same.

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/09/lgbtq-cruise-ship-refused-entry-egypt-turkey?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

It’s only this latest thing that makes you want to boycott these countries?! I think you need to read more.

I would rather be dead than live in either of those countries. They respect gay people but are morally bankrupt when it comes to imprisonment for children.

Boycotting is a legitimate form of peaceful protest. I''d always encourage people to take part in peaceful protest for causes they feel strongly about.

Sorry quoted a post by accident there.

Watch Pride.

Gay people have a history of supporting oppressed groups regardless of whether they are supported in turn. Fucking noble. Even if Palestinians aren't woke, they don't deserve to have their babies deliberately shot through the head.

It's not denial. It's basic human rights.

The same way I support women's rights. Including women who probably hate me.

It is not illegal in Turkey. It hasn’t been since 1858, a hundred odd years before it stopped being illegal in England.

While not specifically illegal in Egypt either, gay people do get arrested under prostitution and debauchery laws.

Astonishing. Yesterday I read a thread about an 8 year old girl who called a 13 year old boy a gay boy. There was such outrage here about this 8 year old ‘homophobe’ who has been called a bitch. Many pp agreed and said she was disgusting. Today dozens of you are defending ME countries for their laws against LGBT rights. I’m reading ‘their country, their rules’. Do you folks really not have the guts to condemn these countries? Why is that? Reminds me of how the grooming gangs got away with it for so long because no one wanted to be called racist.

In some gay countries, they subject suspected gays to intimate examinations to determine whether they have engaged in sodomy. There are plenty on here who are rooting for their football teams in the world cup.

They don't let gay people get married in Israel, the same as Egypt and Turkey so I'm not sure how much respect they have for gay people either tbh.

I meant to say Middle East countries, not gay countries.

They don't conduct gay marriages but if a couple marries elsewhere, the state recognises and respects it, and that really is better than any of its neighbours. Sorry.

Some people on here hate Israel

Ofc they're entitled to ban, it doesn't make it right. They should be criticised.

Was apartheid, or Saudi Arabia banning women from voting, to name 2, also 'their country, their rules'?

Why are you sorry, are you preventing gay people from marrying in Israel? Israel don't allow gay people to marry, the same way Egypt and Turkey don't. You don't need to be sorry for that unless you are responsible of course.

From Wikipedia
Marriage in Israel is regulated by the religious courts of recognized confessional communities, none of which perform interfaith or same-sex marriages. Domestic civil marriage is not recognized in Israel; however, civil marriages performed in foreign jurisdictions, including same-sex marriages, are recognized with full marital rights under Israeli law.[1][2]
Marriages performed in Israel are only legally recognized when registered with one of the 15 religious marital courts recognized by the state, none of which permit same-sex marriage. In November 2006, the High Court of Justice ruled that same-sex marriages performed abroad may be registered in Israel.[3]Consequently, Israeli same-sex couples who wished to have their marriages recognized by the government had to marry outside Israel, in a jurisdiction where such marriages were legal, and then register upon returning home. In July 2022, the Central District Court ruled that marriages performed via an online civil marriage service established by the U.S. state of Utah, including same-sex marriages, are legal in Israel, removing the necessity of leaving the country to get married.[4][5] The ruling was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2023.[6]

It's also a factor that marriage HAS to be religious in Israel due to carryover from Ottoman era laws. Thus the phenomenon of 'Cyprus weddings' by Israelis who want a secular wedding.

Exactly!

Re the girl, why was she calling him gay? In an insulting way? If an 8yo is homophobic it's not their fault but probably their environment, calling them a bitch is awful.

It's nuanced. Hyperbole about grooming gangs is unhelpful.

And I disagreed that misogyny is the correct response to homophobia as well.

OP can boycott. People can be angry and upset. It won't change a single thing. Campaigning to give asylum to (for example) gay men from Uganda actually means something.

I know. And there are a lot of legitimate criticisms to be made of it, which is why it's so weird how rarely they make those ones. And how they seem to single it out in a way they don't do with any other country. Like here, when of all the countries in that part of the world and their stance on LGBT etc, they go for Israel even though it actually is the leader in that regard and has a thriving gay scene. But it's the one they complain about.

I just can't think why.

Ofc they're entitled to ban, it doesn't make it right. They should be criticised.

Was apartheid, or Saudi Arabia banning women from voting, to name 2, also 'their country, their rules'?

I'm sorry that Israel is the leader in the region on this point, with a much better stance on LGBT rights and therefore you can't exploit this issue to demonise it as the most evil state that ever evilled, and I know how much you want to, which is why you're now so pissed off.

This too.

I often think people going on Nile cruises there are reckless due to the continuing instability, although they're heavily guarded. And arguably they help give Sisi legitimacy.

Both countries with terrible attitudes to women, lgb etc.

Go for it. I wont go to either.

That’s for a religious reason but same sex couples have the same rights as heterosexual couples including all legal and civil rights and can adopt children. There’s a lot of respect for lgbt in Israel unlike other ME countries.

No thread is complete without shoe horning in hate for Palestinians it seems.

Nothing justifies killing innocent people, ok?

Ofc they're entitled to ban, it doesn't make it right. They should be criticised.

Was apartheid, or Saudi Arabia banning women from voting, to name 2, also 'their country, their rules'?