Halil Kandok on Figen’s death: “Alert alert, another trans committed suicide”

Source: Halil Kandok, “Dikkat dikkat, bir trans daha intihar etti! (“Alert alert, another trans committed suicide”), Kaos GL, August 25, 2014, http://www.kaosgl.com/sayfa.php?id=17383

Is this a suicide, or a hate murder committed with a secret weapon, a weapon of hatred? To remain silent in the face of discrimination is a weapon that kills gay and trans people.

News about trans activist Figen’s suicide dropped on one of the LGBTI news websites. Yes, just the news of it; did we take any other action? Everyone continued with their everyday life. Let alone the heterosexual world, even the LGBTIs did not care. Today I witnessed a speech that fails to act on the discrimination and murders that LGBTIs face. “They should not openly behave in a way to disturb the social order,” it said. This sentence was the expression of the universal approach towards gays, lesbians, and transsexuals. What this conveys is that LGBTIs do not have the right to live as self-defined selves. They can breath only in a manner that will not discomfort the heterosexual world. If they cross those boundaries, they deserve all forms of discrimination and hateful attacks they are subjected to.

Can LGBTIs, who are deprived of their right to life, tolerate this vegetative state, and if so, for how much longer? Always on pins and needles, always the target of lovelessness and hatred, deprived of the right to work, the right to socialize, the right to become part of the social environment… If we are able to live despite homophobia and transphobia, this is a great success. Because LGBTIs are supported neither by the institution of the family, nor by the state, nor by any other unit. No one cares about the LGBTIs who die. For instance, lately, everyone has been taking the ALS ice bucket challenge. Yet, the diversity of sexual orientation and of trans gender identity are not illnesses; they are the dispossession of healthy individuals’ right to life by heterosexism. So, why are people not trying to draw attention to this? Even LGBTIs make themselves shiver with ice water to raise awareness of ALS, yet they remain apathetic to their own sexual identity.

I look at Kaos GL’s website and encounter a photograph of Figen, who committed suicide by jumping off to the sea. I see in her eyes how she felt that life was devoid of meaning for her. Can one really look at life with hope, with the joy to live, with meaning in a world that does not value her self? Did you ever encounter a situation where someone did not like you solely on the basis of your sexual orientation or your gender identity, where you became a target the hatred of someone who announced you as the complete other? Figen did not commit suicide out of nowhere. She committed suicide because of social pressure and because the state failed to protect her. That is, she was pushed to death, to her suicide. Is this a suicide, or is it a murder committed with a secret weapon, the weapon of hatred? I no longer want to cite, one by one, those who are responsible for this murder. Everyone is responsible, the humanity that failed to be human is responsible. People from all portions of society engages the world, or at least their own social milieu, when they are touched by the death of a significant other. And what happens when trans and gay people die or are murdered? Tell me then, to whom do they belong to? Whose children are they, whose citizen? Oh, I forgot, they are the people of Lot, the hell-bound wretched sinners, aren’t they? A sinner cannot have the right to a humane life, can s/he?

How many people really, genuinely believe that LGBTIs have the right to a humane life? How many minds have not been reset by the sexism of heterosexism? I am not talking about the so-called humanity, I am talking about genuine human beings. Which one of you would have wanted to be Figen’s mother, father, brother, or child? I’ll answer: none of you. It was this isolation that Figen could not tolerate and departed. I’ll tell you what, if even LGBTIs do not want to understand themselves, gays and transsexuals, people who are not gay nor trans cannot fully understand us. Naturally, exceptions do not break the rule. If you claim that you truly understand gays, transsexuals, take an ice bucket and pour it down your head and draw attention to your children who have been sacrificed to hatred. I wrote before and I am writing again, each and every gay or trans suicide is a murder committed by society. To remain silent in the face of discrimination is to become a weapon of hatred that murders gay and trans people.

O the artists! Won’t you sing a song for transsexuals, won’t you compose one for gay people, won’t you erect a statue for LGBTIs, paint your canvasses with the colors of the rainbow, dance for Figen’s soul, tell on the stage you take that she was not just a cartoon? Let it touch all hearts, let it be reminded that we are human beings.


Having suicidal thoughts? Please, please stop long enough to read this. It will only take about five minutes: http://www.metanoia.org/suicide/

To the best of our knowledge, the online and IRL resources below will provide you with a safe and non-judgmental space.

IRC / Chatlines

Hotlines

Sexual Assault Resources

If you know of any other suicide resources where you live or work, please do let us know so that we can add them to our website. To contact us, email us at , or see https://lgbtinewsturkey.com/about/.

https://lgbtinewsturkey.com/2015/03/04/suicide-resources/

 

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