Source: Arda Yücel, “Feminen bir gey ve otobüs şöförü” (“A feminine gay and the bus driver”), Kaos GL, 10 September 2014, http://www.kaosgl.org/sayfa.php?id=17493
I left the office on Monday and started waiting for a bus at Sultanbeyli city center. It’s a dark area and the last stop of the bus is quite close to my house… Anyhow, I boarded the bus.
Photograph by Jnbn, 2007, https://flic.kr/p/5wEiPK, cc by-nc 2.0
I did not have an Akbil [a public transportation pass] with me, so I asked the other passengers whether they had an extra one. A sensitive young passenger gave me his [Akbil] card and I handed him the fee for it. In the meanwhile, the bus driver noticed that I was gay from my tone of voice and started giving me dirty looks. I understood that something was going to go wrong…
The bus was crowded, which is why I started standing at the front door. People naturally kept disembarking the bus. When we arrived at the last stop, only a few passengers were left and they disembarked using the middle door of the bus, I wanted to leave using the front door since I was near it.
While I was leaving, the bus driver hit my arm and asked me “are you disembarking here?” I said “Yes.” He asked “Do you live here?” I said “It’s none of your business.” He said “Don’t leave, let’s talk a little.” And naturally in that context, I left politeness aside, said “Who do you think you are, how dare you speak to me like that?” and left the bus.
As I walked, I put my headphones on and kept on walking while talking to myself. He came after me with the bus shamelessly. I really lost it and yelled “Get lost, the fact that I am gay does not mean I will sleep with whoever I come across!”
The whole neighbourhood heard it and told about it to my mother. And my mother, god bless her soul, claimed I was in the wrong. “Didn’t I tell you to put on proper clothes, talk, walk and behave properly and straight?”[1] In short, a feminine gay can neither walk on the street nor live humanely!
[1] “Doğru düzgün”, lit. “correct and straight,” is an idiom used to convey, usually with frustration, that the other person (who is perceived to be acting in a silly, rude, or childish way) should act normally. Its heteronormative connotations are latent, rather than open and direct.