Kuir Kıbrıs Derneği, Queer Cyprus Association in English, is the LGBTI organisation of the northern half of the island. It came together in 2007 as an initiative against homophobia and spent years campaigning against the articles of the penal code that made sex between men a crime in the north, which were repealed in 2014.
The office is in Köşklüçiftlik, in the part of Nicosia that is called Lefkoşa. The association runs a free solidarity line staffed by trained volunteers, answering calls, messages and online enquiries about sexual orientation, gender identity and where to find help. Working teams cover health, education and legal advocacy, and a social team puts on parties, picnics, yoga and trips.
It also places a solidarity donation box in cafés, restaurants, bookshops and clinics across the north and publishes the list of where they stand. For a visitor that list doubles as a map of which businesses in Lefkoşa have said openly that they are on side.
The people in this picture are AI-generated.
