LGBTI suicides

Lesbian Woman Commits Suicide in Turkey

Nalan Bayar, a student at the department of Mechanical Engineering in METU [Middle Eastern Technical University, Ankara] who was systematically subjected to family pressure and threats because of her lesbian identity, took her own life. Her friends made a written statement that said “It’s not a suicide but a social homicide, and the murderer is obvious.”

Source: “Eşcinsel olduğu için baskı gören kadın yaşamına son verdi”, T24, 30 August 2016, http://t24.com.tr/haber/escinsel-oldugu-icin-baski-goren-kadin-yasamina-son-verdi,357622

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“It’s not a suicide, but a social homicide and the murderer is obvious.”

According to the news of Jinha, Nalan Bayar who was systematically subjected to pressure and threats from her family and social circle and had gone to Germany for university education because of her sexual orientation. Nalan who was also a graduate student of the department of Business in Bogazici University, took her own life Monday morning, having been driven to suicide as a result of the hate that she was exposed to because she was a lesbian.

Her friends and 7 Renk Mersin LGBT who made a written statement have highlighted that the death of Nalan is not a suicide but a social homicide. The statement read:

“Again a murder was committed in front of our eyes and we weren’t able to prevent it. Our friend, Nalan Bayar who had gone to Germany for university education in order to get away from the pressures and threats from her family based on her sexual orientation, took her life Monday morning. It’s not a suicide but a social homicide, and the murderer is obvious. This is a criminal complaint, not to the governmental mechanisms producing the same darkness, but to the conscience of humanity. Nalan committed suicide because she despaired of this conscience blunted by darkness. We couldn’t be hope and light.

“She will be quietly buried whilst being presented by her family as ‘someone who had gone to study but committed suicide because of the depression of failure’. Nalan was a graduate from the department of Business in Bogazici University, and a student in the department of Mechanical Engineering in METU. She had dedicated herself to caring for street animals. Nalan and the fight she put up under the unendurable heaviness of being other, because of her sexual orientation, will wither on the vine in a trice. Murderers will live and die without being aware that they are murderers. As long as we keep silence like that and don’t proliferate, murders will be committed every day.

“The end result for those who don’t keep silent and search for a solution to any kind of social problem are prisons, exiles, political murders, etc. If that’s not enough, being burned alive in the basement would be continuous. It’s not known how much this situation will accumulate, but it’s obvious that we die every day, down to the crumbs of our humanity. Let’s announce, and be the voice! The death of Nalan was not suicide but a murder.”

Having suicidal thoughts? Please see our list of resources:

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

Trans woman commits suicide in Turkey

Azize Ömrüm, a sex worker who lived in İzmir, committed suicide due to not being able to stand social pressure. One of Azize Ömrüm’s closes friends, trans activist Öykü Ay said, “We are all responsible for this suicide.”

Source: “Trans Kadın İntihar Etti”, pembehayat.org, 22 August 2016, http://pembehayat.org/haberler.php?id=1210

azizeomrum

After the suicide of Azize Ömrüm, a sex worker trans woman, Öykü Ay was quoted as saying “Azize was different from all of us. She only loved once, but her lover’s parents broke them up. Azize could not stand that her lover got married by force with another person. She told her love to all of us. She was telling this so frequently, we could not understand her strong feelings. Then she found her solution by isolating herself.”

Ay also mentioned that Azize wanted to be a chef and not a sex worker. Ay stated “She used to cook very well. The only person whose bed she wanted to get in was that of her lover. But she had to be a sex worker because of her life condition. The system did not let her  work in another job. She could not handle the burden and was lonesome” and mentioned that the whole of society is responsible for Azize’s suicide, including her friends.  

As Pembe Hayat, we all offer our condolences to everyone in the trans community.

Protest for Azize in Ankara!

After Azize’s suicide, High School LGBTI in Ankara invited everyone to gather against transphobia. High School LGBTI stated “We are gathering in front of the Human Rights statue in order to not stay silent but to be the voice of Azize’s scream” and invited all anti-transphobic people to Yüksel Street at 7 pm.

 

Having suicidal thoughts? Please see our list of resources: https://lgbtinewsturkey.com/2015/03/04/suicide-resources/

Suicide Resources

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

Substance Abuse 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/.

 

Turkish Psychologists Association: LGBTI suicides are always a social phenomenon

LGBTI suicides are always a social phenomenon because an LGBTI individual is directly or indirectly exposed to cultural, legal, physical and social discrimination and violence throughout her/his entire life. 

Source: Turkish Psychologists Association, “LGBTİ intiharları her zaman toplumsal bir olgudur”, (“LGBTI suicides are always a social phenomenon”), TPD, 06 January 2015, http://www.psikolog.org.tr/index.php?Detail=1201

We are deeply sorry for the suicide of the trans-individual Eylül Cansın.

We give our condolences to her relatives, friends and LGBTI Movement.

LGBTI suicides are always a social phenomenon

LGBTI suicides are always a social phenomenon because an LGBTI individual is directly or indirectly exposed to cultural, legal, physical and social discrimination and violence throughout her/his entire life.

The hopelessness and desperation of an LGBTI individual is linked to the discrimination and the violence she/he Is exposed to

The hopelessness and desperation that an LGBTI individual has to face, which sometimes results in depression in clinical levels, is the consequence of the discrimination and violence that she/he is exposed to. The available research points out that being exposed to discrimination and to violation of rights and being excluded from one’s family [and support networks] lead to health impairments such as depression, anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. It also raises the risk of tendency to suicidal thoughts, weakens the immune system and delays recovery. It is our responsibility to act in solidarity with LGBTI individuals in the context of cultural, legal, physical and social discrimination and violence, and to take a stand against homophobic and transphobic attitude and acts of society.

The responsibility of the media: The media must avoid broadcasts that may encourage suicide

In this context, the media shoulders an important responsibility. First of all, we want to repeat the previous warning: suicides, especially in the form of Eylül Cansın’s which occurred on 4 January 2015, have to be treated very carefully by the media, since they can pave the way for other suicides. This is a critical issue.

It is crucial not to share and broadcast the video with the suicide note in order to prevent it from becoming widespread. A detailed description of the suicide process may trigger and can become a role model, especially for adolescents, young adults, and people who are inclined to depression and suicide. It also raises the possibility of imitation. Many studies underline this possibility. For this reason, any type of suicidal incident should not be broadcast as the headline or as breaking news and it should be broadcasted without visuals and without dramatizing the incident. In news broadcasts, detailed depictions of the method of suicide must be avoided and media outlets must not broadcast the aftermath of the suicide.

Legal, psychological and social support available to LGBTI individuals must be emphasized

The support and treatment possibilities for the depression, which underlies the behavior of suicide, as well as the effectiveness of these possibilities on saving lives must be emphasized. Wide publicity must be given to the legal, psychological and social tools that LGBTI individuals can use. This publicity must also provide information on the organizations which they can join and the psychosocial support projects that they can benefit. The contact information of these organizations and foundations must be generalized.

As the TPD [Turkish Psychologists Association] LGBTI Studies Unit, we call on the media establishments to publicize the violence and discrimination LGBTI individuals face in every fields of their life and to act in solidarity with the LGBTI political movement.

 

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/

 

Tolga Yalçın On Figen’s Death: What if She Called?

Source: Tolga Yalçın, “Ya aradıysa?”, (“What if she called?”), kaosGL.org, 6 September 2014, http://kaosgl.org/sayfa.php?id=17469

What if she called?

She was my friend. She had told me so. “You are my friend,” she had said. I was interning at [LGBTI association] Kaos. I was excited. A little nervous as well. I had been sent to [LGBTT association] Pink Life, with the words, “Go, have a look, let me know what you find” to follow up on Umut G.’s Case.* (Case? Is that a social service term? Would that make me a case worker? I was actually Umut’s friend) We arranged meetings that lasted hours. She felt helpless. So much so that she was ready to like even the pigeons on that balcony. She was in shock. I am in shock now. The colonel-militarism had abducted her love, we knew this, we knew this, we knew this, but no one would listen. The colonel had abducted her Umut from her, the colonel had abducted the man she loved.

“I love him very much, I cannot bear him gone,” she had told me, on that balcony. She used to smoke long Marlboros. She would offer me those cigarettes of hers’ too. I wouldn’t accept, for she would smoke a lot and I feared that she would run out if I did. I wish now that her pack hadn’t run out. I was hungry then. Unemployed, or at any rate, about to be unemployed in a few months. I was in love, as deeply as she was in love with her Umut. Her lover had been abducted by his colonel father, heterosexism had claimed mine. “You will recover, you are my friend, I am here for you,” she told me then. I had smiled. This woman, who was undergoing great tumult herself, smoking long Marlboros to calm herself, was able to concern herself with my lover. But she was telling me that it would pass, looking at the pigeons. I came to know her then.

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LGBT Activist Committed Suicide in Azerbaijan

Source: Ömer Akpınar, “LGBT Activist Committed Suicide in Azerbaijan,” kaosGL.org, 23 January 2014, http://kaosgl.org/page.php?id=15670

İsa Şahmarlı, 20-year-old LGBT activist in Azerbaijan, hanged himself yesterday with a rainbow flag.

The president of the Azad LGBT group was found dead by his friends in the office where he worked.

“You are all responsible of my death”

Before committing suicide, Sahmarli shared a note from his Facebook account: “I am going. This country, this world is not for me… I am going to become happy… Tell mom that I love her much. You are all responsible of my death. This world is not strong enough to bear my colors. Farewell.”

“Rainbow Flags Will Be in Baku Sky”

Şahmarlı once said in an interview: “I hope and I will see one day that LGBT flags will be in Baku sky. What I really want to see is a gay couple walking freely in Baku.” He also emphasized in another interview that family pressure drives many LGBT teens to suicide.

İsa’s friends and those against homophobia will attend his funeral today. There will be a press release on Sunday in Ankara by Anka LGBT, as well.

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/