Lambda Istanbul is a Turkish LGBT organization. It was founded in 1993 as a cultural space for the LGBT

LGBT

LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...

 community, and became an official organization in 1996. Clandestine Pride events were held in Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 starting in 1993, and with Lambda Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

 participation, they became public marches.

The organization was ordered dissolved in May 2008 following a court decision. The prosecutors claimed that Lambda Istanbul's objectives were "against the law and morality". The order has been criticized by Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...

 and Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

. The Supreme Court of Appeals overturned this order on November 25, 2008, and on April 30, 2009, a lower court granted Lambda Istanbul permission to continue operating.

The agenda of Lambda includes:

• Reporting human rights violations
  Human rights in Turkey
  Human rights in Turkey are theoretically protected by a variety of international law treaties, which take precedence over domestic legislation, according to Article 90 of the 1982 Constitution....
  
  .
• Helping change the 10th article of the Constitution
  Constitution of Turkey
  This article relates to a current event. See also the Turkish constitutional referendum, 2010The Constitution of the Republic of Turkey is Turkey's fundamental law. It establishes the organization of the government and sets out the principles and rules of the state's conduct along with its...
  
  , pending its amendment. According to the Article No.10 of the Constitution of Turkey, discrimination based on language, race, skin color, gender, political opinion, religion, denomination and similar reasons is prohibited but it does not directly refer to sexual orientation or sexual identity.