Discrimination ‘looms larger’
‘Crackdowns on Pride events reflect the govt’s heavier hand on LGBT+ community’
ÇAYAN Hakiki trimmed their finger nails and scrubbed off the polish last week in order to take Turkish university entrance exams without being hassled, as advocacy groups say LGBT+ people face increasingly open discrimination.
“I didn’t want any problems at the entrance,” Mr Hakiki, 23, told Reuters at home in the capital Ankara. Mr Hakiki identifies as “lubunya” in Turkish, a term that refers to people who identify with LGBT+ culture but for which there is no direct translation.
“We are subject to all kinds of violence from the moment we begin to exist as an LGBT+ person, whether from people on the street, the government or the police.”
Advocates say crackdowns on Pride events and other curbs on free speech and assembly reflect the government’s heavier hand including recent open denunciations of the LGBT+ community.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government has dismissed such claims of discrimination and says police are upholding the law against “unlawful” protests. In other instances, the government has denied the existence of LGBT+ individuals, or said the concept was imported from the West, and posed a threat to family values.
Transgender Europe, a network of organisations that advocate for rights, says 54 transgender people were killed in Turkey from 2008 through September 2020, the highest rate in Europe.
Unreported cases means the number is likely higher, it said, adding that transgender people face discrimination including denial of jobs, housing, health care and education.
Last week, as international Pride month ended, Turkish authorities including police in riot gear detained an estimated 100 people taking part in parades and demonstrations across the country.
Police used tear gas to disperse some of the hundreds who had gathered. Such events have been banned in recent years, though in the past thousands took part in the main İstanbul Pride parade.
European Union concerns over human rights have hindered Turkey’s accession process, which has been languishing for years after the bloc informally suspended membership talks.
For the third straight year in 2020, Turkey ranked second lowest in the “Rainbow Index” that measures respect for LGBT+ human rights in 49 European countries, according to the International
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA-Europe).
‘LGBT+ DEVIANTS’
Advocates like Mr Hakiki, who is part of the Ankarabased Pink Life LGBT+ solidarity group, say examples of discrimination such as difficulties finding housing and jobs are multiplying.
In February, amid student and faculty protests over the naming of an İstanbul university rector, Mr Erdoğan and other officials seized on the display on campus of an image that combined Islamic imagery and rainbow flags.
Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu labelled the students “LGBT+ deviants” and Mr Erdoğan praised his Islamist-rooted AK Party’s youth wing for not being “LGBT+ youth”. More than 100 students face trial on charges including obstructing
police, holding protests without permission and inciting violence, according to the stateowned Anadolu news agency.
Last month, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic sent a letter to Turkey’s interior and justice ministers expressing concern about rising homophobic narratives by some officials, and called on them to reverse course and protect LGBT+ rights.
“I want to stay in this country and continue our struggle for rights,” said Mr Hakiki, who is of Kurdish origin and who completed the entrance exams and aims to study performance arts management in İstanbul.
“If there’s going to be a change in this country, it will be led by the LGBTI+ movement. It is the government who is afraid of this movement, and not the other way around,” they said.