Turkey's gay-lesbians on their way to be recognized
April 9, 2007
Safak Timur – Turkish Daily News
Generations in Turkey grew up with the fabulous voice and around 200 compositions of the classical Turkish music performer Zeki Muren, who dared to sing with a man's body in women's clothes and make-up in 1950's Turkey. Turks called their first Golden Record awarded artist the ‘sun of art', never openly referring to him as ‘gay' but rather as ‘extraordinary.' Muren was not the only one with different sexual tendencies and was followed by Bulent Ersoy, whose approved talent in the same art competed from time to time with her transsexual identity.
The children of this country grew up unaware of the existence of gays and lesbians, but they were condemned by their parents -who rarely talk about sex- for not enjoying Ersoy or Muren's music. Just until the development of Turkey's own gay-lesbian-transgender movement, ‘extraordinary' sexual tendencies continued to be lived behind four walls, as reflected in Ersoy's choice to call the ban on her for taking stage because of her transsexual identity after 1980 military coup as ‘the internal affairs of our country', in an interview abroad.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement in Turkey accelerated by the 1990s. Today, it has reached to a level that gay and lesbian university students can apply for an official student club. The movement itself prefers to use the abbreviation LGBT, referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender; instead of ‘homosexual', due to its negative connotation as a disease rather than a sexual tendency.
Although Turkey's LBGT activists generally emphasize that it is the patriarchal system behind sexual discrimination, which is found worldwide, they mainly acknowledge that Turkey stands at the beginning of the road to gain LGBT rights, with a need to fight more strongly against sexual discrimination than their counterparts in the West.
In the West, the way is more open in the struggle against homophobia and making society more conscious, as they have gained legal rights, said Burcu Ersoy, the 27 year old KAOS Gay and Lesbian Cultural Research and Solidarity Organization (KAOS GL) activist from Ankara, as she compared the LGBT movement in the West to Turkey. “We are continuing in this way too,” she said.
The laws are important to transform the society, 26 year old LAMBDA Istanbul Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transvestite, Transsexual Solidarity Organization volunteer Sinan commented. But the laws alone cannot eliminate homophobia and transphobia, another LAMBDA Istanbul activist Bawer added. “What is critical is to break the prejudices,” he said.
The first and only gay lesbian magazine in Turkey:
KAOS GL, one among several LGBT organizations in Turkey, publicized its struggle against homophobia in 1994 with Turkey's first and only gay-lesbian magazine KAOS GL. Starting its life through a photocopy machine, KAOS GL magazine has continued to survive for 11 years as a ground for Turkey's LGBTs to say their own words.
“Those 16 pages, copied in a photocopy machine will be remembered as a turning point in the lives of those women and men, who will take a shelter under the love of their own gender and stand with this love even a hundred years later,” current columnist in daily Radikal Yıldırım Turker wrote about KAOS GL magazine in the 66th issue of the magazine Express in 1995.
The 28th issue of KAOS GL magazine which criticized pornography was recalled with the accusation of obscene publication, and the court decided that the issue had to be sold in a plastic bag and its sale to minors under 18 was to be prohibited. The case is now in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Burcu Ersoy said, because of their appeal for the court's reasoning to put the issue in plastic bags.
KAOS GL is based in Ankara and has 50 members officially. But the real number of volunteers is greatly above that number, as many decline to disclose that they work with us, Ersoy said. Izmir also has a branch of KAOS GL. The organization stands out with its legal struggle for LGBT rights. From opposing sexually discriminating court decisions to proposing to add ‘discrimination of sexual tendency' next to ‘gender discrimination' in the criminal code, KAOS GL struggles to prevent hate crimes against LGBTs.
Leaping over barriers, inside and out:
LAMBDA Istanbul activists declined to give their surnames, worrying about effects of media exposure; although they posed to the cameras after learning that the TDN is a daily in English. The media, as the fourth estate, can unfortunately also become a destructive force for LGBTs, by hitting on sexual prejudices in the society consciously or unconsciously. Some media reports abusing LGBTs by using them as material for entertainment or humiliation was among the activists' main complaints, but they also acknowledged respectful reports.
The story of Turkey's first gay-lesbian hotel in Mediterranean Fethiye is an example. The hotel was opened two years ago and forced to be closed down last year, the former manager Turgay told, as it became known through reports in a number of mainstream dailies and journals. The reports were reasonable, he said, but problems started shortly after. The military police came to the hotel several times at night, Turgay said and finally he was told that the military police could not provide security there. They started to wake up with fire shots after that, he claimed, leading to the closure of the hotel due to a small problem in the deed of the property. The management license of the hotel was taken away from the property owner, Turgay concluded and the story of the first gay-lesbian hotel ended, despite the possibility of high profits by bringing a nonexistent facility into the Turkish tourism sector. Turgay now manages a gay café in Istanbul's Beyoğlu.
No choice but prostitution:
Transsexuals and transvestites feel the oppression much more than gays, lesbians and bisexuals LAMBDA Istanbul activists said, since they are more visible. But they are not aware of the rights they have, leading to a high degree of abuse and discrimination transgender Ebru said, recounting the activities of LAMBDA Istanbul.
LAMBDA Istanbul organizes education seminars for LGBTs to inform them about their rights when exposed to violence. There are several working groups under LAMBDA Istanbul, including the transvestite and transsexual working group.
“There are transphobic friends in LAMBDA, and this makes us sad,” Ebru said, as she explained their need to form a separate working group. The struggle of transvestites and transsexuals focusing on legal issues and the right to work is now a main concern.
“They do not leave us any choice but prostitution,” 46 year old Ebru said. She was working in Zonguldak municipality before she acknowledged her transgender identity. “They fired me as soon as they learned,” she said.
The oppression from police forces is overwhelming, Ebru said. They raid homes of transvestites and transsexuals and collect the condoms that the ministry of health distributed as evidence, she astoundingly added, “What could these people do, steal?”
LAMBDA Istanbul first came together to organize the Gays Pride Week in Turkey in 1993. Not giving up, the volunteers continued to meet for 9 years and became officially registered last year. The aim of LAMBDA Istanbul is to provide more visibility for LGBTs, said Didar, from the media group of LAMBDA Istanbul.
“We exist and we are everywhere. The main idea behind getting organized is to feel that we are not alone,” LAMBDA Istanbul activists said. “You are neither alone, nor wrong,” Sinan reminded the slogan of the organization.
Double discrimination against lesbian women:
Gender roles make things more complicated for lesbians and women transgenders. Women are already regarded as pretty much nonexistent, but it is a double discrimination for lesbians, KAOS GL volunteer Burcu Ersoy said. Gay women have different problems, she commented, and they took the back seat in the LGBT struggle in comparison to male gays. They are even forced to get married, Ersoy added.
The typical role for lesbians was to be a part of sexual fantasies or they were approved for envying to be a male, a more supreme being, transgender Sinan said, of course unless you stay behind the definite limits. Having lived in the United States for a while, Sinan said he faced lots of problems in the U.S. too. “There are hate crimes there too,” he added.
Original Link: http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=70201
Safak Timur – Turkish Daily News
Generations in Turkey grew up with the fabulous voice and around 200 compositions of the classical Turkish music performer Zeki Muren, who dared to sing with a man's body in women's clothes and make-up in 1950's Turkey. Turks called their first Golden Record awarded artist the ‘sun of art', never openly referring to him as ‘gay' but rather as ‘extraordinary.' Muren was not the only one with different sexual tendencies and was followed by Bulent Ersoy, whose approved talent in the same art competed from time to time with her transsexual identity.
The children of this country grew up unaware of the existence of gays and lesbians, but they were condemned by their parents -who rarely talk about sex- for not enjoying Ersoy or Muren's music. Just until the development of Turkey's own gay-lesbian-transgender movement, ‘extraordinary' sexual tendencies continued to be lived behind four walls, as reflected in Ersoy's choice to call the ban on her for taking stage because of her transsexual identity after 1980 military coup as ‘the internal affairs of our country', in an interview abroad.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement in Turkey accelerated by the 1990s. Today, it has reached to a level that gay and lesbian university students can apply for an official student club. The movement itself prefers to use the abbreviation LGBT, referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender; instead of ‘homosexual', due to its negative connotation as a disease rather than a sexual tendency.
Although Turkey's LBGT activists generally emphasize that it is the patriarchal system behind sexual discrimination, which is found worldwide, they mainly acknowledge that Turkey stands at the beginning of the road to gain LGBT rights, with a need to fight more strongly against sexual discrimination than their counterparts in the West.
In the West, the way is more open in the struggle against homophobia and making society more conscious, as they have gained legal rights, said Burcu Ersoy, the 27 year old KAOS Gay and Lesbian Cultural Research and Solidarity Organization (KAOS GL) activist from Ankara, as she compared the LGBT movement in the West to Turkey. “We are continuing in this way too,” she said.
The laws are important to transform the society, 26 year old LAMBDA Istanbul Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transvestite, Transsexual Solidarity Organization volunteer Sinan commented. But the laws alone cannot eliminate homophobia and transphobia, another LAMBDA Istanbul activist Bawer added. “What is critical is to break the prejudices,” he said.
The first and only gay lesbian magazine in Turkey:
KAOS GL, one among several LGBT organizations in Turkey, publicized its struggle against homophobia in 1994 with Turkey's first and only gay-lesbian magazine KAOS GL. Starting its life through a photocopy machine, KAOS GL magazine has continued to survive for 11 years as a ground for Turkey's LGBTs to say their own words.
“Those 16 pages, copied in a photocopy machine will be remembered as a turning point in the lives of those women and men, who will take a shelter under the love of their own gender and stand with this love even a hundred years later,” current columnist in daily Radikal Yıldırım Turker wrote about KAOS GL magazine in the 66th issue of the magazine Express in 1995.
The 28th issue of KAOS GL magazine which criticized pornography was recalled with the accusation of obscene publication, and the court decided that the issue had to be sold in a plastic bag and its sale to minors under 18 was to be prohibited. The case is now in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Burcu Ersoy said, because of their appeal for the court's reasoning to put the issue in plastic bags.
KAOS GL is based in Ankara and has 50 members officially. But the real number of volunteers is greatly above that number, as many decline to disclose that they work with us, Ersoy said. Izmir also has a branch of KAOS GL. The organization stands out with its legal struggle for LGBT rights. From opposing sexually discriminating court decisions to proposing to add ‘discrimination of sexual tendency' next to ‘gender discrimination' in the criminal code, KAOS GL struggles to prevent hate crimes against LGBTs.
Leaping over barriers, inside and out:
LAMBDA Istanbul activists declined to give their surnames, worrying about effects of media exposure; although they posed to the cameras after learning that the TDN is a daily in English. The media, as the fourth estate, can unfortunately also become a destructive force for LGBTs, by hitting on sexual prejudices in the society consciously or unconsciously. Some media reports abusing LGBTs by using them as material for entertainment or humiliation was among the activists' main complaints, but they also acknowledged respectful reports.
The story of Turkey's first gay-lesbian hotel in Mediterranean Fethiye is an example. The hotel was opened two years ago and forced to be closed down last year, the former manager Turgay told, as it became known through reports in a number of mainstream dailies and journals. The reports were reasonable, he said, but problems started shortly after. The military police came to the hotel several times at night, Turgay said and finally he was told that the military police could not provide security there. They started to wake up with fire shots after that, he claimed, leading to the closure of the hotel due to a small problem in the deed of the property. The management license of the hotel was taken away from the property owner, Turgay concluded and the story of the first gay-lesbian hotel ended, despite the possibility of high profits by bringing a nonexistent facility into the Turkish tourism sector. Turgay now manages a gay café in Istanbul's Beyoğlu.
No choice but prostitution:
Transsexuals and transvestites feel the oppression much more than gays, lesbians and bisexuals LAMBDA Istanbul activists said, since they are more visible. But they are not aware of the rights they have, leading to a high degree of abuse and discrimination transgender Ebru said, recounting the activities of LAMBDA Istanbul.
LAMBDA Istanbul organizes education seminars for LGBTs to inform them about their rights when exposed to violence. There are several working groups under LAMBDA Istanbul, including the transvestite and transsexual working group.
“There are transphobic friends in LAMBDA, and this makes us sad,” Ebru said, as she explained their need to form a separate working group. The struggle of transvestites and transsexuals focusing on legal issues and the right to work is now a main concern.
“They do not leave us any choice but prostitution,” 46 year old Ebru said. She was working in Zonguldak municipality before she acknowledged her transgender identity. “They fired me as soon as they learned,” she said.
The oppression from police forces is overwhelming, Ebru said. They raid homes of transvestites and transsexuals and collect the condoms that the ministry of health distributed as evidence, she astoundingly added, “What could these people do, steal?”
LAMBDA Istanbul first came together to organize the Gays Pride Week in Turkey in 1993. Not giving up, the volunteers continued to meet for 9 years and became officially registered last year. The aim of LAMBDA Istanbul is to provide more visibility for LGBTs, said Didar, from the media group of LAMBDA Istanbul.
“We exist and we are everywhere. The main idea behind getting organized is to feel that we are not alone,” LAMBDA Istanbul activists said. “You are neither alone, nor wrong,” Sinan reminded the slogan of the organization.
Double discrimination against lesbian women:
Gender roles make things more complicated for lesbians and women transgenders. Women are already regarded as pretty much nonexistent, but it is a double discrimination for lesbians, KAOS GL volunteer Burcu Ersoy said. Gay women have different problems, she commented, and they took the back seat in the LGBT struggle in comparison to male gays. They are even forced to get married, Ersoy added.
The typical role for lesbians was to be a part of sexual fantasies or they were approved for envying to be a male, a more supreme being, transgender Sinan said, of course unless you stay behind the definite limits. Having lived in the United States for a while, Sinan said he faced lots of problems in the U.S. too. “There are hate crimes there too,” he added.
Original Link: http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=70201
