bianet

Comrade, I am a Faggot

Source: Elif Akgül, “Yoldaş Ben İbneyim,” (“Comrade, I am a faggot,”) Bianet, 25 October 2013, http://bianet.org/biamag/diger/150839-yoldas-ben-ibneyim

Journalist and LGBT activist Yıldız Tar talked to bianet about the newly released book Comrade, I am a Faggot and the perception of socialist organizations on the LGBT movement.

Journalist Yıldız Tar’s book Comrade, I am a Faggot: The Left’s Perception of the LGBT Movement has been published by Ceylan Publishing House. Tar answered Bianet’s questions,  stating that the LGBT and leftist organizations had close contacts for the first time during the Gezi Resistance and that this encounter affected all of them Tar also adds that they have to face up to our existence and cause. Those who cannot embrace the LGBT movement will end up in history’s trash bin.

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Homophobia is both “inside” and “outside”

Source: Çiçek Tahaoğlu, “Homofobi Hem İçeride Hem Dışarıda,” (“Homophobia is both Inside and Outside,”) bianet, 17 May 2012, http://bit.ly/Jxu8M4

LGBT people face homophobia/transphobia all the time in the outside world and they must fight inside as well. They are fighting discrimination, the prison management, and prison guards; they demand their rights to health care and access to treatment, the right to a fair trial and the right to live humanely.

Activist Aras Güngör who works with LGBT people in prisons spoke about LGBT inmates and their living conditions “inside.”

3 prisons have trans wards

We do not know the number of LGBT people in prison because the probability of problems during trial and in prison is very high when sexual orientation and gender identity are expressed.

Güngör states that the inability to express sexual orientation and gender identity because of social exclusion and discrimination in the outside world exists in prison as well. This also explains the lack of data on the number of LGBT people in prison. Still, he remarks that it is not possible to keep gender identities hidden from inmates in the same wards.

The situation gets a bit more complicated for transgender people. Güngör states that the treatment of trans people- who are visible by nature- differs according to the attitudes of prison administrations.

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