From Lambda Istanbul:
Every year at Pride, Lambda Istanbul organizes The Genetically Modified Tomato Awards to honour the
most homo/transphobic statements or acts of the year. The awards ceremony got its name from a statement
by Turkish football star Erman Toroglu who once said that eating genetically modified food can turn you
gay.
This year a special “Pinkwashing” Award was given to the IGLYO, the International Lesbian Gay Bisexual
Transgender and Queer Youth and Student Organization. IGLYO is holding it’s general assembly in Tel Aviv
December 2011.
Accepting the award on behalf of IGLYO, Kemal Ordek from Pink Life in Ankara explained that Pink Life
is a member of IGLYO but that it had protested the decision to hold the meeting in Tel Aviv and plans to
boycott it. “This award goes to the board of IGLYO,” he explained. “They haven’t listened to LGBT groups
from around the world. They say that we should stay neutral on political questions. We are not
neutral. The people who get killed in Palestine are not just heterosexuals.”