Yeni Akit: Toprak, MP from the CHP works as if she is the representative of the homosexuals

Source: M. Emin Özkul, “CHP’li Toprak, Eşcinsellerin Vekili Gibi Çalışıyor,” (“Toprak, MP from the CHP  works as if she is the representative of the homosexuals,”) 19 December 2013, Yeni Akit, http://www.yeniakit.com.tr/haber/chpli-toprak-escinsellerin-vekili-gibi-calisiyor-8298.html

Yeni Akit is a conservative daily newspaper that engages in hate speech against LGBTI people and other groups. This is a verbatim translation. 

Binnaz Toprak, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) Member of Parliament for Istanbul, works as though she is the representative of homosexuals in the Turkish General Assembly.

Toprak, who earlier had motioned the Parliament to initiate a Parliamentary Investigation for homosexuals, submitted a parliamentary question asking what is being done to end the ongoing victimization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual individuals.

TOPRAK IS ASKING FOR LEGAL PROTECTION FOR HOMOSEXUALS

Alleging in her parliamentary question that policies of denial, violence and elimination targeting LGBT citizens continue, Toprak said: “Despite the fact that sexual orientation and gender identity were added to the draft of the Law pertaining to the Protection of Family and Violence Against Women by joint agreement between women’s NGOs and the Ministry, they were later removed from the text by the Council of Ministers. Protection of sexual orientation and gender identity have been refused by the AKP. They are also absent from the draft law on Equality and Fighting Discrimination.”

Evidently society needs to change its perspective

Toprak, who mentioned the negative stance in society towards homosexuals, said: “Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual individuals, who are among the most victimized by hate crimes, demand an end to policies and discourses that encourage denial, violence and othering, and an action plan to change social mentalities that are the source of such policies.”

In her parliamentary question, Toprak asked Erdoğan whether the AKP government had a political, legal and social action plan to end the victimization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transexual individuals.

She had asked for a parliamentary investigation

Earlier, Toprak, the CHP MP for Istanbul, had jointly submitted, with several of her friends, a motion to initiate a Parliamentary Investigation to identify the problems of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transexual individuals. As reason for the motion Toprak alleged that political institutions which should act as vanguards in society were deliberately ignoring the discrimination lesbian, gay, bisexual and transexual individuals are subject to, and said:

“The attitude of political institutions determines how the civil servants of the state bureaucracy treat citizens. The majority of these citizens, who comprise a significant section of society, do not feel safe and do not trust that the police will protect them when attacked. These individuals are subject to discrimination, humiliation, mobbing and stigmatization at the workplace. The discrimination they experience because of their identity confronts them in all asspects of their lives.

 

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