Gay men in Turkey seeking exemption from the country's mandatory military service must prove their homosexuality, the BBC reports, even though many army physicians realize it's medically impossible to determine sexual orientation.
The resulting process to obtain a so-called "pink certificate" allowing gays to dodge conscription — and potentially dangerous deployments to combat Kurdish separatists — is often humiliating, the British public broadcaster says in a documentary airing Tuesday.
'They asked me if I liked football, whether I wore women's clothes or used women's perfume'
—Ahmet, gay conscript in TurkeyIt's common for gay men to submit explicit photographs, undergo personality tests and answer questionnaires about their sexual preferences.
Lacking any valid "diagnostic tools," a physician told the BBC World Service, potential gay draftees must prepare whatever evidence they can to convince a military health panel of their homosexuality, sometimes deemed as a "psychosexual disorder."
"They asked me if I liked football, whether I wore women's clothes or used women's perfume," said one gay conscript in his 20s.
The man, using the name Ahmet to protect his true identity, said he refused requests to show a health panel pictures of himself dressed as a woman. Instead, he offered army doctors a photo of him kissing another man.
Gokhan, also conscripted in the 1990s and using a different name, said he submitted a photo of himself having sex with a male partner. He said he had heard it was otherwise impossible to obtain a pink certificate.
''The face must be visible,'' Gokhan said, adding he worries about the possibility they could be made public. ''And the photos must show you as the passive partner.''
