A Turkish prosecutor has launched legal proceedings against an association, seeking its closure in connection with a LGBTI event it organized, the Kronos news website reported on Tuesday. The community-centered Association for Supporting the Tarlabaşı Community in İstanbul organized an event titled “How to Protect LGBTI Students from the Grip of Family and School,” which was targeted by the pro-government Milat daily in a smear campaign. Two separate cases were brought against the association. The association’s remarks regarding LGBTI+ people were treated as “obscenity” in the prosecutor’s statement, which argued that the event sought to “normalize the sexual tendencies of the people known publicly as LGBTI, and by doing so, influence the gender of children.” Although homosexuality has been legal throughout modern Turkey’s history, homophobia is widespread and gay people regularly face harassment and abuse.