Press Statement by luBunya Students on Singer’s Homophobic Statements

Source: luBunya-Bogazici [Bosphorus University Student Organization against Heterosexism], “Basına, Kamuoyuna ve Tüm İnsan Hakları Destekçilerine Duyurulur!” (“For immediate release to press and public and all of the civil right supporters”), Facebook, 17 September 2014, https://m.facebook.com/LuBUnyaBogazici/photos/a.152506168117885.25456.132128600155642/742015985833564/?type=1

The singer named Fatma Uludan Canevi, known as Niran Unsal, commits a crime of provoking the public to hate and hostility or insulting it via her social media account.

Canevi makes offensive statements openly by using the published photos of the audience who went to a legally organized concert [by Lady Gaga]. The photos of the audience show them wearing self-designed clothes in the concert area.

Canevi shared a photo of a person from the audience with a green wig and pink clothes via her social media account and tweeted: “We are not interested in your sexual preferences, go live in your home! We will not let you be role models for our children with such quackery.”

Screen Shot 2014-09-23 at 08.33.10

Canevi said “This is the main reason why we worry” by using the photos of other members of the audience with wigs and glasses. And “Mothers and fathers, it is our humane duty to say STOP to all of those poisoning the youth of this country!”

We remind that the Republic of Turkey is governed by the rule of law

The Republic of Turkey is party to civil rights agreements with the United Nations.

It is against the fundamental human right to freely move about to tell people to “stay at home” because of their sexual orientation or identity. According to Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to free movement and to residence within a nation. This right can only be limited by laws. It does not allow for the seizure of such freedoms on the basis that people wear wigs and pink clothes or that they are homosexual or transsexual. It is a HATE CRIME to try to legitimize such seizures! LGBTI people, like other sections of the population, have the right to live their sexual orientation and identity both in their homes and in the public sphere.

People cannot be invited to say “STOP” in a illegal way such as “humane duty” by using clothes or costumes of people as excuses. This invitation openly provokes people towards hate and hostility.

We warn and follow!

To invite people to say “STOP” in illegal forms like “humanly duty”, to accuse and insult people because of their clothes, costumes, sexual orientation, sexual identity, language, color and race, and to seize the lives they have outside their homes is a first step towards alienation, massacres and murders. We observe that this kind of hate speech encourages crimes against LGBT people and women. And we emphasize the necessity of the people’s solidarity and for legal procedures to be carried out against the hate speech of such public figures as Canevi. This person should be put on trial.

As the Bogazici University Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Studies Club, we research and produce information. We perceive it as our responsibility to enlighten the public on the topics of LGBTI [rights], which is fundamental human rights issue.

BOGAZICI UNIVERSITY LGBTI STUDIES COMMUNITY

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