The LGBTI+ movement in Turkey has a much more dynamic and organic organizational structure compared to other LGBTI+ and social movements in the Middle East, Balkans and Eastern Europe. For this reason, it has managed to put forward a holistic perspective not only on gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, but also on democratization, dialogue, coexistence and human rights in general. The LGBTI+ movement, built on a culture of solidarity, has the potential to transform every field it penetrates, has carried this holistic perspective to many areas of civil society, especially human rights organizations, and has never lost contact with other social movements.
Despite the increasingly systematic and repressive policies against the LGBTI+ movement since 2015, the movement’s success in surviving thanks to its organizing practices, flexibility and agility inspires many segments of society, especially LGBTI+ subjects and LGBTI+ rights defenders. It is quite meaningful that the government, which cannot keep up with the developing and growing society and is against everything and everyone new and beautiful, openly confronts an LGBTI+ movement that liberates every space with its creative, productive and hopeful struggle, while continuing its existence with outdated policies in all this drought.
The government, the high-ranking public officials appointed by it, and the government-backed media outlets are persistently trying to present LGBTI+’s as if they are not a part of society, trying to push LGBTI+ organizations out of legitimate politics, and making an intense effort to criminalize and outlaw them. However, it should not be forgotten that being LGBTI+ does not mean being committed to an ideology or making a political choice, on the contrary, the struggle of LGBTI+ people is the struggle to exist in a social structure that tries to design our private life, and to claim their lives against all kinds of difficulties encountered in the public sphere. It is the struggle of those who are forced to be ashamed of their existence to be themselves and not to give up their rights and dignity.
This struggle has become an indispensable part of Turkish democracy and the main artery of social opposition. However, we see that the opposition parties cannot comprehend this change, insist on not recognizing it and refrain from coming side by side with LGBTI+ people. Even in the Boğaziçi University protests, when everything was so clear and in front of all our eyes, LGBTI+s are still ignored or their presence is not more than a weak voice.
All state authorities involved in targeting, especially the President and the Minister of Interior, clearly violate Article 10 of the Constitution and international conventions to which Turkey is a signatory. Therefore, standing against hatred based on sexual orientation and gender identity and defending the equal citizenship demands of LGBTI+’s in the long term in a democratic, open and unwavering manner means defending the secular, democratic and legal state.
On the other hand, taking a stand in favor of LGBTI+’s in the polarizing environment is not to nurture polarization, as is often claimed, but to eviscerate it. As it is understood again with the latest developments, it is not LGBTI+’s who are marginalized, but those who are trying to build a false order far from the realities of society.
We see that the current government, which has ruled the country more than two decades, is far from establishing an absolute majority that supports authoritarianism in Turkey, despite taking the right-wing populist wind behind it. Neither Turkey can carry the current government nor the current government can carry Turkey anymore. Society is far ahead of the government and even the political parties that oppose it.
Nevertheless, the government is trying to deepen social polarization by laying dynamite on the fault lines of the society and can only maintain its power in this way. In doing so, it targets LGBTI+’s, who are already disadvantaged in many areas, and throws them in front of the society as fodder in the political arena. At this very point, the social opposition should stand up and take every group that has fallen to the ground with it and form a majority in favor of democracy and human rights, and establish a coalition of this majority. Only in this way can Turkey get back on track.
From this platform, through this article, we make a clear call to all political parties and social movements active in politics in Turkey to stand against this systematic hate attack against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. Turn your face not to the government, which confines politics and our identities to a narrow sphere, but to the society with its history of democracy with all its diversity, its know-how, its unyielding resistance. Because, at the end of the day, these violations target society as a whole and social peace. The best answer to this is to persistently and stubbornly reiterate the existence of LGBTI+ in social and public spaces and that LGBTI+ are equal subjects of these spaces.