Authorities in Istanbul have banned the “Queer Olympix”, organisers said Saturday, becoming the latest pro-LGBT event to be cancelled in Turkey. Some 130 participants were to compete in the third annual Queer Olympix this weekend in sports including football, beach volleyball and long jump, volunteer organiser Elif Kaya said. However when they went to start setting up the event in the Kadikoy district on the Asian side of Istanbul on Saturday, “we saw police and two water cannons”, Kaya said. “We were told that we did not have permission to hold our event,” she told AFP. It is the first time the event, which began in 2017, has been cancelled by authorities.