Brett Cooper — This Gay Cruise Was Kicked Out of Turkey AND Egypt

So guys, I was on vacation last week and as it always happens, the moment I left town, a great big gay scandal erupted on the open seas. And I know, I know that this has been going viral for like 5 days, but you have to give me this because I am desperate to talk about this story. It is just too good not to cover here on the show. So sit back, relax, let's figure out why on Earth, Turkey and Egypt would deny entry to this very specific big fat gay cruise. Now, before we dive into this story, I want to thank you guys so much for being here. Make sure that you hit the subscribe button and click alike if you guys enjoyed this video. And of course, if you want to stay up to date on everything we do here on the Brad Cooper show, make sure to bring that notification bell. All right, so this story really is so perfect because 2 weeks ago, we had the woman moving to Afghanistan for the man that she met on Snapchat. The entire internet was going, oh my god, what are you doing? You are an idiot, and now this past week. We had almost 2000 gay men trying to port, trying to go off and do tourism, gay tourism in Middle Eastern Muslim countries. Make it makes sense. Just not smart. Anyway, so here's what happened. And LGBTQ events travel company called Atlantis Events, chartered a virgin voyages ship called the Scarlet Lady for one of their annual cruises for gay men. Now, Atlantis has been running events for 36 years. Exactly. They do these programs all over the world, and apparently this cruise, though, is what they are known for. It is, again, thousands, thousands of gay men, all crams on one ship. They party every single night. There are drag queens and singers. We are going to get to the most infamous of the singers, there are rays, everybody's dancing, they're in their assless chaps, their puppy masks, the whole thing. It's all over social media, and they do that every evening, and then they wake up to sightsee. You do you, obviously, free country. We're going to get to that. It's really great that we live in a free country for these individuals, but you do you. However, that seems like my personal hell. Like gay men, aside, do not care. I just could not be trapped in a nude, basically nude, rave, mosh pit, at sea. In the middle of the ocean, no way to escape. Absa frickin' lutely not my personal hell. Anyway, moving on from that. The Scarlet Lady. This is the ship. They are chartering. She embarks on her journey. They are cruising down the Mediterranean and all is well until she starts heading towards Turkey. They're going to Istanbul, I believe, with all of her queens on board, and Turkey. Here's that they're coming, probably from all of the squealing from the many nautical miles away. And she says, actually, we are not going to let you come into port for moral reasons. So, that was the first strike. Now, when that happened in Turkey, The men said, okay, that sucks, but they, you know, held their heads up high. They continued on. They decided to go to Egypt. They were going to go see the pyramids. There's a new museum that's opened in Cairo. They going to do that. Everybody was very excited now that they were going to be able to go to Egypt. But then, when they got closer to Egypt again, they might have heard the raving. They heard the squealing, and Egypt, with no warning, and no stated reason, no morality, anything like that. They just said, hey, yeah, us two. You actually are not allowed to dock here either. Now, after that 2nd strike, that is when all hell broke loose. Suddenly, we were getting more stranded at sea videos than when the people were stuck on the hauntavirus ship. If that tells you anything. Just watch. There are 1000s of men who come on the ship to celebrate. and to feel free to be who we are without any fear of homophobia, uh, or to be able to be ourselves in a public space. Okay, so 1st of all, before we continue on with this man's clip, The thing that you missed at the beginning of this news interview is that this man and his husband, they live in Miami. They routinely party on South Beach. What homophobia? Are you fighting in the nightclubs of Miami that you feel like you need to get on a ship and go to the Middle East to feel free? You're getting on this boat to celebrate, to be free, not have to deal with any homophobia. Again, you live in Miami. You live in South Florida. I think that the nearby Fort Lauderdale is the gayest city in the USA. That's what they always say. They've got the pride sidewalks everywhere. What homophobia are you fighting? Lets be a real. Anyway, let's move on. Let's see what he says next. I mean, I think what's really disappointing is that we spend a lot of our times as gay people really trying to find safe spaces and going on this cruise is about as safe as it's supposed to get, right? And we were excited to go to new places and potentially experience that safe space in places like Turkey and in Egypt where it is obviously very difficult to be a gay person in those countries. This is so dumb. We're gonna talk about this later, but it is so incredibly out of touch. You want a safe space. You want to go experience a safe space, so you decided to go on a cruise to predominantly Muslim countries? Got it. Got it, got makes total sense. I don't even know why. I'm questioning it guys. lets pack it up, move on. We all getting on the cruise ship. I personally hope mine. takes me to Afghanistan. And we can see what TikToker Alex Sonny, how she's faring with her Snapchat husband. And, you know, maybe, while I'm there, I could help people, because, you know, actually, maybe, maybe this cruise really wasn't about them and celebrating gayness and pride and all the things, maybe, it was actually about helping the oppressed gays in these countries. And actually, multiple people said this. Just watch. It would be a great opportunity for those people in those countries to also experience what it's like outside of the, in the rest of the world where people can be free and be celebrated for who they are. My heart right now doesn't go out to all the people in this Atlantis cruise while we are sad. There's a lot of privileged people in here who obviously have the disposable income to be able to come on a cruise for vacation. But I think about people who are living in the Middle East, or people who are living in Turkey, people who we could have seen in Egypt that are in those places, they are not allowed to get green cards to come to America where we can be free to love who we want for the most part. And it just makes me really sad and my heart goes out to them. I mean, it sounds like you are going to a zoo. We want to go see those people. We want to let them see us. They can't get green cards to come to our country, but we just want them to see how happy and how free we are. Aren't we so benevolent? Oh my god, get a grip. Get a grip. It is so incredibly out of touch. Okay, but I will say, this does offer possibly an interesting strategy. So maybe the next time. Atlantis, you want to do one of these gay cruises, maybe you don't brand it as the nude gay rave cruise through the Middle East. Maybe instead, it's a mission trip because that's really what all of these men are saying. You're going to show all of the oppressed poor people, what they are missing, as you prance around in your iHeart, my penis, t-shirts. They're gonna love it. Just an idea. Mission trip cruise. Possibly my best idea yet. Now, back to the stranded at sea videos. Of course, as they are, you know, lamenting on social media about all the things in their iHeart, my penis t-shirts. Guests who they decided to blame. The world's punching bag Donald Trump himself. As a gay man, it's just, it's really hard to hear. I know that this kind of prejudice is not new to these kind of countries. And obviously, I don't want to go anywhere that shares those kind of views. But you just can't help but feel that with this current administration, people around the world feel more emboldened to do these kinds of things. And it's just really awful. I would like to hope that the world is moving forward, but it just kind of feels like we're moving backwards. But we will still be having a fabulous daytime wherever we are. trust and belief. Trust and believe, trust and believe. Okay, so once again, we have multiple things to unpack in this video. Once again, he's saying, I don't want to go to a country where they where I'm not accepted. You're trying to force your way in. You signed up for a cruise. Going to Egypt and Turkey. What did you expect, sir? That they were going to welcome you in your assless chaps with open arms? 2000 of you flooding the streets? I mean, like, seriously. Use your brain. Now, 2nd of all, I'm saying use your brain. I just don't feel like some of these individuals are very smart. Maybe it's the drugs you're taking on board with the rave. I don't know, but you immediately blame the current administration. That is like the scapegoat of all scapegoats. Let's be real here. There are a lot of people in this conservative world that think that Donald Trump is too pro gay, that wish he was actually a little more homophobic. So let's just like, let's think about that. Trump, possibly one of the most pro gay presidents ever. He's the one. Yes, yes. He's the one who did this to you. Now, I'm sorry to inform you, but Trump's LGBTQ plus directives, they have been focused on rooting out degeneracy, like the nudity, protecting minors from lewd activities and harmful gender ideology. He's trying to remove taxpayer dollars so that we don't have to fund things that we don't believe in. Like, he is doing a lot of things that I'm sure you disagree with, but he is not out here. Calling up the president of Turkey asking him to keep you from docking in their port. Like, if you want to blame anyone, it should be the idiot at Atlantis events who decided that you guys cruising there would be a really smart, great idea. And a lot of people online do have that question. Like one person said, if I were them, I'd be upset with the cruise line, but that's not as fun. It's not as fun to be upset with the rational, logical person to blame. It's more fun to be upset with Donald Trump, obviously. Anyway, if someone continues, she says, how do you advertise a cruise at destinations, you know damn well, won't allow your ship to dock. You can't blame the country. The country has the right to do whatever they want. It just shows how lucky they are to live in America, where they have the freedom to do what they want, which is very true. Over on Reddit, somebody said, this is so stupid. Whoever organized this thing is not good at their job, and a boat full of ignorant gay men who don't understand what's going on. As a lesbian, I would never sign up to docket countries where my existence is illegal, let alone a boat full of people just like me, like, what are we even doing? Somebody else said, maybe just a gay cruise in the Middle East wasn't a good idea. And then Lauren Chen chimed in over on X and she said, who is the person that planned a gay cruise through Muslim countries? We want to know. We need you exposed because you, sir, are fired. You fired. And to top it off, guys, I did check the cruise, does not use helix mattresses, so no, I will not be getting on board. Now, after my weeklong vacation, The number one thing I wanted was to sleep on my helix mattress, because as you guys know, I am obsessed, and my Dusk Lux mattress was even better than I remembered. I was so happy to land in it last night. 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I do want to be fair to Atlantis events because I have been, you know, mocking them throughout the entirety of this episode, but I do think this is an important wrinkle in the story because this is where it gets interesting. So the Atlanta CEO and a spokesperson both came out and they said that the reason why they did this was because they had done this route and route similar to it many times over the last couple of decades and they had done it without any problems, hence why they chose to go again this year, and now they're going, what has changed of the last year? Obviously, it must be Donald Trump doing something. Now, they even apparently went last year in 2025. So, I guess, over the last 12 months, Donald Trump really got to work making those Middle Eastern countries become homophobic, he must truly be the most powerful president in the history of the world because those countries have never have never been homophobic before. It must be him, and certainly not the fact that last year, Turkey declared it was the year of the family, and explicitly said, that part of the year of the family, actually the most important part of this year of the family would be them cracking down on harmful and perverse ideologies to protect the use. The president explicitly said that neoliberal cultural trends or crossing borders and penetrating all quarters of the world, they also lead to LGBT and other movements gaining ground. The target of gender neutralization policies in which the LGBT is used as a battering ram is the family. saying that the family is the target, hence why he is cracking down on all of this. Now, that directive, that goal for the year, was put in place in January of 2025. And Atlantis, they still decided to do a cruise that year. It went through Istanbul. It went through Cairo. Apparently it went off without a hitch, but a lot of things have changed since that directive was put in place. They have progressed. Fast forward to now, 2026. The country is actively working on pushing through a drafted bill that would criminalize, promoting transgenderism. It would criminalize gay marriage, gay engagement. They have also started cracking down on gay organizations in Turkey. They started that at the end of 2025. So they have really ramped up over the last, you know, 9 months or so. And then just the cherry on top of this story, the UN, the Human Rights Commission, put Turkey on a watch list, which was updated as recently as last month. Look at this, abusive anti-LGBT proposals resurface in Turkey. That was June 15th of this year. Less than a month before this Atlanta ship was set to start sailing. So, the UN Human Rights Watch, puts a country on a list, and you still decide, less than a month later, that it is the perfect time to load up 2000 nude gay men, and that actually, you're all going to embark on a journey to help those people, you, and do your thongs, and your assless chaps, your iHeart, my penis, t-shirts, and Patty Lepone. Patty Lapone, the singer, you all are going to help these poor oppressed people. Yes, you heard that correctly. The insufferable, and I hate to say it, because I grew up loving her, but the insufferable Broadway Titan Patty Lapone was on board. And apparently, that gave the gays a false sense of security. watch this. Both Version Atlantis are going to make sure we have a great time and we will. That's the whole gay experience, like having fun in the face of adversity, but it's like, we're too gay to come spend a bunch of money in your country. I guess 3 thoughts. One, I would love to hear from them, we don't need gay fried people. Don't we? Um, two. If you're a country watching this and you have ocean access. You host, we travel. Um, and three, oh, Patty Lapone's on the ship, and she was pissed when she found out about Turkey. I'm truly scared for the country of Egypt when she wakes up and finds out about this. Now that was only half of that man's video. I have no words. So much of it was just idiotic, but I would just be regurgitating everything that I had said before. You get the point, but he was right. Patty Lapone was pissed, but she did give us one of the best one-liners of the year. Let's see if you can pick it out of her post. So this is what she put on Facebook, of course, because she's like 70 years old. She said, I am shocked. Okay, none of us are, Patty, but I'm glad you are. I am shocked. The Atlantis cruise that I am performing on next week has been banned from entering Turkey, a ship, a magnificent ship, full of well healed gay men, and me, denied entry to Turkey simply because of who is on board. I am furious, but I am sailing. As the ship will make other ports of call. I am ready to perform for all of these wonderful men on this Atlantis cruise who deserve so much better than this. I am furious, but I am sailing. I'm furious, but I'm saying, put it on a t-shirt, I'm buying it. I don't care what the situation was that is just too good. But even though it's kind of an iconic dramatic line, That line of hers, it really does illuminate the common denominator of the story, and that's really what we need to talk about, which is privileged, out of touch, performative outrage, saying this is an affront to human rights, but we persevere. We will fight on, on board a cruise ship with unlimited alcohol and to fluent men. We will persevere. This is devastating. We'll make our TikToks, but the cruise must go on. We know that these countries don't like gay people, that they stone them and kill them, that they are actively criminalizing our lifestyle, but they must let us in. It is our right. We want to go flaunt our lifestyle and spend all of the money that they don't have to help people. To show them what they are missing. I mean, oh, my God. Get your head out of your ass. Come on, it is so incredibly out of touch. Number one, Trump is not the problem in any of this. Blame the cruise ship company for thinking you were all untouchable by the rest of the non-Western world. I don't care how many pride parades you do. That Mr. Blonde Man in the last video. I'm arguing that they are not helping based on what we see. I think that the people in the non-west world are going, that's crazy. We don't want that here. Number two, you should be taking this moment to be so incredibly grateful for the country that you were born into. You should be so grateful for the United States and the freedom that it affords you. It actually might afford you too much freedom, considering that I routinely see you all dancing naked in front of children on the streets. That's a little too far. It's actually way too far, and it's not helping your case at home or obviously abroad. But that freedom, to prance around naked, to love whoever you love, marry who you want to marry, it is a freedom, that you do not have that you would not get in most other countries, especially not in the Middle East. especially not in predominantly Muslim countries. And instead of waking up to that, being honest, acknowledging it, you choose to crap on your own country. You choose to continue to believe that you are the oppressed people of the world, and then you attempt to shove, forcefully shove your way into other countries that already hate you. Only making matters worse. And then you, and then you cry on TikTok about how it's so unprecedented and you blame your president back at home, who was no way involved in the situation in the slightest. These are made up, privileged, out of touch problems that help you feel important, and like you constantly have a fight to overcome so that next year you can do an even bigger pride parade because you weren't allowed in Turkey. Get a grip, people. I have no sympathy. Go on, keep fighting, sailing, enjoy your cruise, Queens