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

Israel has been at war since it's inception, it was attacked immediately and it has been fighting for it's life ever since. That is not gaslighting.
But, I am going to stop now only because I am contributing to a derailment of this thread.

I wouldn't go to any country with a poor human rights record, and I include gay rights in that. I do my utmost to avoid buying things from those countries too.

YANBU.

It highlights the real backward nature of those country’s but it raises the question why did the itinerary include them in the first place?

Why are you surprised? Muslim countries. Traditional Islamic teachings and mainstream jurisprudence do not recognise or permit homosexual acts.
Do you expect those countries will be bothered by you not visiting ? 🤨

You were happy enough to derail the thread with your accusations about posters not caring about October 7th and justifying the killing of 1000’s of Palestinian children. You’re right. I think you should stop.

This is how it always works. They go to another country and expect them to bend over backwards to accommodate their beliefs but anyone going to theirs should fit in with them. I honestly wish we had the balls to have the same attitude in this country but we just let anyone turn up on a dinghy without question.

Oh gosh, my family member is on this cruise!

I think that it’s a disgrace that the cruise company have put them in this position, know the government/s wouldn’t approve. When was the last gay cruise with this itinerary? I’m sad. Human rights are going backwards

I mean, it's Turkey and Egypt.

I can think of lots of reasons I would not travel, to Egypt in particular. And you can bet if I had to I would be conscious or conforming to their social norms.

Is anyone saying you need to go visit these places, OP.

I wonder if it's relevant though.

There are a lot of "left" progressives now who are all over support for Palestine, like Queers for Palestine, and a very surprising number seem completely unaware that conservative Islamic culture doesn't feel the same way. Which is difficult to imagine but true.

Maybe it was ideas like this that led the cruise company to think this would be fine.

Could you explain how human rights are going backwards, please?

The virgin cruise line has been doing this itinerary.

ie mostly mid 50s people who may be straight or gay but are there for a nice holidays.

this charter is specifically run by someone else for gay men to have a good time.

No, I don’t want to or need to.

I wonder why they thought they would be welcomed here.

That’s handy for you. Make a sweeping statement and leave it there unexplained.

credibility was there none.

Presumably they knew the itinerary and knew these countries were homophobic, so why go?! Virigin were out of their minds scheduling this, but so are the guests for booking. Are people seriously this ignorant and think the whole world is like the west?

Wait until you hear about the Taliban OP.

I feel the same way. Boycott them? Jesus you’d have to pay me to go to either.

I've never experienced that for a holiday though 😁

I’m with you, they could have gone to others but chose those. They follow Islam and should be allowed to choose what happens in their own country.

This is a quite frankly, idiotic take.

This attitude is horrific and it is being imported into our country. Islam hates gay people.
"Queers for Palestine" anyone?

P&O are clearly stupid!

Every country can choose what type of people they want in their country. I disagree with the decision but then I disagree with a lot from those regimes which is why I would never go there in the first place, nor to somewhere like Dubai, which is extremely popular with many people including many gay people I know. Were you happy to go there prior to this incident? Presumably all the people on the cruise ship were also happy to go there until they were refused. Why?

"I wish we had the balls to act the way they do"

This was said upthread, and yep, I agree. I think we are far, far too accommodating.

What is this supposed to mean? Who do you want to target and how?

Turn away people whose values don't align with ours. You say how, well we can't without being all types of 'ists' or 'phobics' hence why it would never happen. But I wish it could.