Turkish Gay Editor Faces Prison
December 14, 2006
Gay City News – Doug Ireland
The editor of Turkey's only magazine for LGBT people, who is also a leading gay activist, was indicted last week under a vague statute banning "obscene" material, and could face up to three years in prison.
The criminal case was brought against Umut Güner, 29, who is editor of Kaos GL-the magazine published by the Ankara-based LGBT association of the same name, of which he is also a vice-president-because it had dedicated its July issue to a symposium discussion of pornography, with articles by various gay writers.
“I personally took out anything that could be deemed pornographic before the magazine was printed," Güner told Gay City News, through a translator, from Ankara, adding, "We did this issue to figure out what role pornography plays in LGBT life, and how it shapes LGBT life. We especially focused on how heterosexual porn objectifies women and how straight men see lesbians as a fantasy. We asked LGBT writers to respond to questions like, 'Where is pornography in our lives? Why do we watch porn? Are eroticism and pornography different?'"
The entire press run of Kaos GL's issue 28, containing the symposium, was seized as "pornographic," before it could be distributed, on July 24 by order of Ankara's Twelfth Court of Justice (a development covered by a report, "Crackdown on Turkey's Gays," in the August 10-16 issue of Gay City News). Kaos GL appealed the seizure to Turkey's Supreme Court, which upheld the lower court's order. Having exhausted all appeals within Turkey's justice system, the magazine's publisher is pursuing an appeal of the seizure at the European Court of Human Rights.
But now editor Güner-who for legal reasons is listed as the magazine's "owner"-is the target of a criminal indictment under the Turkish penal code's Article 226, Part 2, which reads: "A person who broadcasts or publishes obscene images, printed or audio material, or who acts as an intermediary for this purpose, shall be sentenced to imprisonment for a term of six months to three years."
Last year, under pressure to conform to human rights norms of the European Union, which Turkey seeks to join, the nation's Parliament undertook a revision of the penal code-and Kaos GL then lobbied, unsuccessfully, for a revision of the vague "obscenity" statute. But with its application to join the EU having stalled since early 2006-just last week an EU summit meeting froze negotiations as a result of the nation's refusal to end its policy of denying port entry to ships registered in the Greek-controlled Republic of Cyprus-Turkey's human rights reforms have also halted this year, according to Le Monde, the leading French daily newspaper.
Kaos GL Magazine first appeared clandestinely in 1994 in samizdat form as a 16-page, photo-copied bulletin on LGBT issues in Turkey produced by a collective of budding gay activists in Ankara who, meeting in private homes, also founded the KAOS Gay and Lesbian Cultural Research and Solidarity Association, the full name of the LGBT group. Today, Kaos GL Magazine is a printed periodical with attractive and sophisticated graphics, that intelligently discusses gay cultural and political issues.
In July 2005, the Kaos GL Association was finally granted legal status as a non-governmental organization by Turkey's Interior Ministry, and established its own offices. But in September last year, Ankara's governor-a member of the ruling Islamist party, AKP (Justice and Development Party), which has governed the Republic of Turkey since 2002-tried to ban the gay association and filed a lawsuit to close it. Legal action to ban the group was rejected, however, by the courts the following month, a development hailed by Kaos GL as a major victory for the gay rights movement.
In March 2006, another group, the Rainbow Solidarity and Cultural Association for Transgenders, Gays and Lesbians was established in the city of Bursa, and became the second legally registered LGBT organization in Turkey. A third group, Ankara-based Pink Life-an association serving Turkey's large transgender community-has also recently been granted legal status.
However, another major gay group, the 12-year-old association Lambda Istanbul-which organized Turkey's first Gay Pride March of 50 LGBT activists in Istanbul in 2003-has yet to be recognized as legal. Güner told Gay City News, "It seems unfair for Lambda Istanbul to still face the same legal obstacles we did, when there are three precedents in three different cases that accept the right of LGBT associations to establish their organizations."
Istanbul's city government is also controlled by the Islamist AKP.
Güner touched on his own life as a gay man.
"I was born in 1977, and I think I began to realize I was gay when I was 11 or 12," he said. "When my family suspected that I was gay when I was 13, they took me to a psychiatrist-my parents were both teachers and well-educated. I was taken to a non-homophobic doctor, who told my mother not to create psychological problems for me, and after that my parents left me alone. I finally came out to my parents in 2001."
But, Güner told me, "When I was growing up, there were no resources for gays, and I had to try to figure out everything for myself just like the other gays and lesbians. I think this is still a continuing problem today, particularly outside the metropolitan cities of Turkey, where gays and lesbians still face their problems alone and still think there's something wrong with them."
"When I came to Ankara for my university education, I had a very hard time acknowledging my sexual orientation," Güner recounted. "I finally figured out that being gay is not something that only happens in your bedroom, and I started volunteering for Kaos GL in 2001, and have been working for the organization ever since. I came out in public and in the media in 2003, when I appeared at the first public forum of Kaos GL on LGBT issues. And I've been the editor of Kaos GL Magazine since then."
Asked if he fears more prosecutions of gay activists, and further attempts to dissolve the Kaos GL Association or ban the magazine, he replied, "There is always the possibility to ban or shut down the magazine because homosexuality is still seen as a taboo. Most people don't want to talk about it or think about it or discuss it. Kaos GL is an LGBT magazine that naturally discusses sexuality, and as long as we discuss sexuality and homosexuality we will face obstacles."
How has Turkey's intellectual and cultural community reacted to Güner's indictment?
"We are just beginning to start a campaign around this legal action, and we haven't even issued a press statement yet, so most of the intellectuals and the cultural community in Turkey don't know about it yet," Güner said. "I think the intellectuals are waiting for us to take the initiative first."
Güner added, however, that "the feminist and human rights organizations here that we've been in contact with have sent us support messages and indicated they wanted to be with us during this legal process."
Güner, who always displays a sunny optimism, said: "I went to the attorney general with my attorney, Yasemin Oz, and submitted a brief defending my actions. But the judge in my case has not yet reviewed it, and might not allow the case to proceed. You have to remember that the judicial system here is independent of the government. And the court may close the case at the first hearing, which is what it does in most of the other LGBT-related prosecutions of organizations."
For more information on the situation in Turkey, visit the Kaos GL Association's Web site-which has a substantial English-language section-at http://www.kaosgl.com/. The site has a PDF file of a special English-language edition of Kaos GL Magazine published earlier this year, which includes articles on Turkish gay history, culture, and socio-political problems.
Doug Ireland can be reached through his blog, DIRELAND, at http://direland.typepad.com/direland/.
Original Link: http://www.gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17589087&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=568864&rfi=6
Gay City News – Doug Ireland
The editor of Turkey's only magazine for LGBT people, who is also a leading gay activist, was indicted last week under a vague statute banning "obscene" material, and could face up to three years in prison.
The criminal case was brought against Umut Güner, 29, who is editor of Kaos GL-the magazine published by the Ankara-based LGBT association of the same name, of which he is also a vice-president-because it had dedicated its July issue to a symposium discussion of pornography, with articles by various gay writers.
“I personally took out anything that could be deemed pornographic before the magazine was printed," Güner told Gay City News, through a translator, from Ankara, adding, "We did this issue to figure out what role pornography plays in LGBT life, and how it shapes LGBT life. We especially focused on how heterosexual porn objectifies women and how straight men see lesbians as a fantasy. We asked LGBT writers to respond to questions like, 'Where is pornography in our lives? Why do we watch porn? Are eroticism and pornography different?'"
The entire press run of Kaos GL's issue 28, containing the symposium, was seized as "pornographic," before it could be distributed, on July 24 by order of Ankara's Twelfth Court of Justice (a development covered by a report, "Crackdown on Turkey's Gays," in the August 10-16 issue of Gay City News). Kaos GL appealed the seizure to Turkey's Supreme Court, which upheld the lower court's order. Having exhausted all appeals within Turkey's justice system, the magazine's publisher is pursuing an appeal of the seizure at the European Court of Human Rights.
But now editor Güner-who for legal reasons is listed as the magazine's "owner"-is the target of a criminal indictment under the Turkish penal code's Article 226, Part 2, which reads: "A person who broadcasts or publishes obscene images, printed or audio material, or who acts as an intermediary for this purpose, shall be sentenced to imprisonment for a term of six months to three years."
Last year, under pressure to conform to human rights norms of the European Union, which Turkey seeks to join, the nation's Parliament undertook a revision of the penal code-and Kaos GL then lobbied, unsuccessfully, for a revision of the vague "obscenity" statute. But with its application to join the EU having stalled since early 2006-just last week an EU summit meeting froze negotiations as a result of the nation's refusal to end its policy of denying port entry to ships registered in the Greek-controlled Republic of Cyprus-Turkey's human rights reforms have also halted this year, according to Le Monde, the leading French daily newspaper.
Kaos GL Magazine first appeared clandestinely in 1994 in samizdat form as a 16-page, photo-copied bulletin on LGBT issues in Turkey produced by a collective of budding gay activists in Ankara who, meeting in private homes, also founded the KAOS Gay and Lesbian Cultural Research and Solidarity Association, the full name of the LGBT group. Today, Kaos GL Magazine is a printed periodical with attractive and sophisticated graphics, that intelligently discusses gay cultural and political issues.
In July 2005, the Kaos GL Association was finally granted legal status as a non-governmental organization by Turkey's Interior Ministry, and established its own offices. But in September last year, Ankara's governor-a member of the ruling Islamist party, AKP (Justice and Development Party), which has governed the Republic of Turkey since 2002-tried to ban the gay association and filed a lawsuit to close it. Legal action to ban the group was rejected, however, by the courts the following month, a development hailed by Kaos GL as a major victory for the gay rights movement.
In March 2006, another group, the Rainbow Solidarity and Cultural Association for Transgenders, Gays and Lesbians was established in the city of Bursa, and became the second legally registered LGBT organization in Turkey. A third group, Ankara-based Pink Life-an association serving Turkey's large transgender community-has also recently been granted legal status.
However, another major gay group, the 12-year-old association Lambda Istanbul-which organized Turkey's first Gay Pride March of 50 LGBT activists in Istanbul in 2003-has yet to be recognized as legal. Güner told Gay City News, "It seems unfair for Lambda Istanbul to still face the same legal obstacles we did, when there are three precedents in three different cases that accept the right of LGBT associations to establish their organizations."
Istanbul's city government is also controlled by the Islamist AKP.
Güner touched on his own life as a gay man.
"I was born in 1977, and I think I began to realize I was gay when I was 11 or 12," he said. "When my family suspected that I was gay when I was 13, they took me to a psychiatrist-my parents were both teachers and well-educated. I was taken to a non-homophobic doctor, who told my mother not to create psychological problems for me, and after that my parents left me alone. I finally came out to my parents in 2001."
But, Güner told me, "When I was growing up, there were no resources for gays, and I had to try to figure out everything for myself just like the other gays and lesbians. I think this is still a continuing problem today, particularly outside the metropolitan cities of Turkey, where gays and lesbians still face their problems alone and still think there's something wrong with them."
"When I came to Ankara for my university education, I had a very hard time acknowledging my sexual orientation," Güner recounted. "I finally figured out that being gay is not something that only happens in your bedroom, and I started volunteering for Kaos GL in 2001, and have been working for the organization ever since. I came out in public and in the media in 2003, when I appeared at the first public forum of Kaos GL on LGBT issues. And I've been the editor of Kaos GL Magazine since then."
Asked if he fears more prosecutions of gay activists, and further attempts to dissolve the Kaos GL Association or ban the magazine, he replied, "There is always the possibility to ban or shut down the magazine because homosexuality is still seen as a taboo. Most people don't want to talk about it or think about it or discuss it. Kaos GL is an LGBT magazine that naturally discusses sexuality, and as long as we discuss sexuality and homosexuality we will face obstacles."
How has Turkey's intellectual and cultural community reacted to Güner's indictment?
"We are just beginning to start a campaign around this legal action, and we haven't even issued a press statement yet, so most of the intellectuals and the cultural community in Turkey don't know about it yet," Güner said. "I think the intellectuals are waiting for us to take the initiative first."
Güner added, however, that "the feminist and human rights organizations here that we've been in contact with have sent us support messages and indicated they wanted to be with us during this legal process."
Güner, who always displays a sunny optimism, said: "I went to the attorney general with my attorney, Yasemin Oz, and submitted a brief defending my actions. But the judge in my case has not yet reviewed it, and might not allow the case to proceed. You have to remember that the judicial system here is independent of the government. And the court may close the case at the first hearing, which is what it does in most of the other LGBT-related prosecutions of organizations."
For more information on the situation in Turkey, visit the Kaos GL Association's Web site-which has a substantial English-language section-at http://www.kaosgl.com/. The site has a PDF file of a special English-language edition of Kaos GL Magazine published earlier this year, which includes articles on Turkish gay history, culture, and socio-political problems.
Doug Ireland can be reached through his blog, DIRELAND, at http://direland.typepad.com/direland/.
Original Link: http://www.gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17589087&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=568864&rfi=6
