No points from Erdogan. Turkey’s leader claims Eurovision Song Contest is a threat to family values

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The Turkish president has criticized the Eurovision Song Contest, accusing the annual event of allegedly encouraging “gender neutralization” and threatening the traditional family. Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday described participants at the contest as the “Trojan horses of social corruption” and said his government was right to keep Turkey out of the pan-European pop competition since 2012. His comments were an apparent reference to Swiss singer Nemo who won the 68th Eurovision Song Contest earlier this month with an operatic pop-rap ode to the singer’s journey toward embracing a nongender identity. Erdogan also decried declining birth rates in Turkey as “an existential threat.”