Colors promoting UN goals or LGBTQ rights? Turkey’s Erdogan complains.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan voiced his displeasure with the United Nations’ use of “LGBT colors” to promote this week’s Sustainable Development Goals.

On Thursday, Turkish media claimed that Erdogan wanted to discuss the issue with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Erdogan and the Islamist-rooted AK Party, which he leads, have tightened their stance on LGBTQ rights in Turkey.

Erdogan said, “One of the issues that bothers me the most… is that when entering the United Nations General Assembly, you see the LGBT colors on steps and other places,” by the Turkish broadcasting company Haberturk and others.

To what extent does the global LGBT community currently exist? Erdogan, who has repeatedly called members of the LGBTQ community “deviants” and particularly sharpened his rhetoric during this year’s election campaign, said that whoever is against the LGBT community has just as much right to be there.

Some U.N. diplomats, however, have suggested that Erdogan may have confused the 17 colors used to decorate the U.N. headquarters for a summit held earlier this week with the rainbow Pride colors associated with LGBTQ rights.

Guterres is an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ rights, yet the United Nations building does not include the rainbow Pride flag.

When asked for a reaction to Erdogan’s comments, a representative for Guterres did not provide any right away.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals, with a 2030 deadline, are a global “to-do” list with goals like eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, addressing inequality and climate change, and advancing gender equality.

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