Source: Kaos GL, “Meğer Toplum LGBT Öğrenci Topluluğuna da Hazır Değilmiş!” (“Apparently Society is Not Ready for an LGBT Student Club Either!”), 2 October 2013, http://www.kaosgl.org/sayfa.php?id=14926
Apparently Society is Not Ready for an LGBT Student Club Either!
Ege University’s LGBT students’ application for the student club status was rejected on the grounds that “society is not ready for a student club like this.”
Members of the Ege University Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Research and Solidarity Community protested the Rectorship for not accepting their “club” application.
“We live in a country where teachers call their students “fags”!”
Members of Ege Legebit who identify themselves “students who do not accept the patriarchal system” made a statement after the protest.
“We live in a country where teachers call their homosexual students “fags.” We are students who do not accept the patriarchal system of this country. Schools have etched in our brains the idea that we are perverts. Our parents who were exposed to the same education now kill their children in the name of honor; the reason of that we are not who they wanted. Even that being the case, our society is still shocked that “in the old times, they used to bury their daughters alive.”
“This society kills LGBTs and leads them to suicide”
“This past summer, this society killed Dora and Gaye within two weeks. Özge, Nükhet and Tuğçe were already killed. The cases of Ahmet Yıldız and R.Ç. still have not reached a verdict even though their families admitted to killing them. So many of us getting killed or pushed to commit suicide across the world are evidence for the social violence that must be stopped.
“We are students of this university and we campaign against hate”
“As the Ege University Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Research and Solidarity Community, we are against the patriarchal and heterosexist system and we campaign against the hate that is prevalent in society. As students of this university, our application to the Health, Culture, and Sports Department was rejected with the reason that “no new communities could be started during the year.” This year, we wanted to show that we can also achieve good things in our university that is being criticized for its gender based dorms. So we resubmitted our application yet it was rejected by the Dean even though there were no bureaucratic obstacles.
“Despite everything, universities will be the institutions that prepare society for “the different”.”
“The reason for our rejection was that society was not ready for a student club like this. We believe that this attitude is an unacceptable form of discrimination that ignores student demands. We, as people who are killed by their families, do not want anyone to worry about us. We see universities as one of the basic factors for raising society’s awareness. We will continue working with the belief that despite everything universities will prepare society for “the different”.”