T24

Why can’t we fit gays and transsexuals into this huge world?

We fit murderers, thieves, rapists, child-abusers and any kind of foulness in this world. Why cannot we fit gays and transsexuals who do not have any designs on the rights of others? Why don’t we “stand up” for Hande as well, as we did for Özgecan?

Source: Nurcan Baysal, “Bu koca dünyaya eşcinselleri, transları neden sığdıramıyoruz?”, T24, 18 August 2016, http://t24.com.tr/yazarlar/nurcan-baysal/bu-koca-dunyaya-escinselleri-translari-neden-sigdiramiyoruz,15267

Hande was lost since August 6. Her friends and partner put out a missing persons report. She was found by the road in Zekeriyaköy. She was burned.

Hande Kader was a transsexual woman and a sex-worker. Last year, during Trans Pride, she demonstrated against police intervention by sitting in front of the anti-riot water cannon vehicle (TOMA). She was brave.

I had a look on her Facebook page in order to get to know her and read her posts. She wrote on November 30:  

“I’ve accumulated great misery inside that there is no place to live other feelings…”

Hande is not alone in accumulating misery/pain. Transsexual individuals enormously accumulate pain in this country. They are driven to suicide or slaughtered as the result of social pressure, exclusion, violence and defamation that they are exposed.

Eylül Cansın was only 23 years old when she threw herself off the bridge by saying that “I couldn’t; they didn’t let me.”

Roşin Çiçek was 17 years old yet when he was killed with 14 bullets by his own father.

İrem Su was 28 years old when she was barbarously killed with 12 stabs.

Two years ago, on August 24, transsexual woman Figen committed suicide in Mersin. She “spat in our face and left” when she was committing suicide, with the words of her close friend. At that time, I wrote that “We could not fit her in this huge world.”

Just 10 days ago, Muhammed Wisam, a gay refugee, was slaughtered by being cut.

People are killed by being burned, they are slaughtered by being cut, and we keep quiet. We keep quite because these people are homosexual or transsexual. We are in a disgusting silence.

We fit murderers, thieves, rapists, child-abusers and any kind of foulness in this world. Why cannot we fit gays and transsexuals who do not have any designs on the rights of others?

Why don’t we “stand up” for Hande as well, as we did for Özgecan?

A downtrodden and battered woman’s body was burned. Why don’t we raise our voices?

Homophobic and transphobic murders are fed on our silence.

It should not be that hard to protect the human dignity.

Don’t be quiet!

HÜDA PAR Threatens the HDP over “Gays”

Source: “HÜDA PAR’dan LGBT tehdidi,” (“HDP Threatened Over Gays by HUDA PAR,”) T24, 31 October 2013, http://t24.com.tr/haber/huda-pardan-escinsellere-yonelik-nefret-soylemi-ve-hdpye-tehdit/243011

HÜDA PAR Chairperson: “They will suffer the consequences if they try to market mental illnesses and perversions to the Kurds under the guise of ‘freedom’.”

The chairperson of the Free Cause Party (Hür Dava Partisi) Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu talked about the HDP (People’s Democratic Party), whose constituency includes LGBTI individuals, with expressions of hate speech: “They will pay the consequences if they try to market mental illnesses and perversions to the Kurds under the guise of ‘freedom’.”

HÜDA PAR is known in Southeastern Turkey as the political party of the Sunni Islamist militant Kurdish Hizbullah movement. Discussing the HDP, which held its First Extraordinary Congress on October 27, 2013 and included three names representing LGBTI individuals, Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu answered the questions of HaberTurk’s Didem Yılmaz using controversial expressions.

(more…)

“If homosexuality was something that could be treated, a heterosexual person could be turned into a homosexual as well”

Source: Hazal Özvarış, ”Eşcinselliğin tedavisi olsa heteroseksüeller de eşcinsel yapılabilirdi!,” (“If homosexuality was something that could be treated, a heterosexual person could be turned into a homosexual as well,”) T24, 25 June 2012, http://t24.com.tr/haber/dr-seven-kaptan-escinselligin-tedavisi-olsa-heteroseksuel-insanlar-da-escinsel-yapilabilirdi/207036

Before the 20th LGBT Pride Week, we interviewed psychiatrist Seven Kaptan, who has been volunteering as a therapist for the Families of LGBTs in Istanbul (LISTAG) for three years.

“After five hours he told me that he was gay. At that moment, I saw the relief in his eyes. I vividly remember that he stopped crying and was calm. He was relieved but my world turned upside and down. I had felt this kind of affliction when I lost my father years ago… Lost… I lost the son I had known for 17 years.” (Radikal, 2006)

The words above belong to Selma Çizmeci, a member of the Families of LGBTs in Istanbul (LISTAG). Founded in 2008 by the parents of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans children, LISTAG now includes about 130 family members.

The 20th Istanbul LGBT Pride Week will begin on June 25 and and will conclude on Sunday, June 30 with the pride march in Taksim. Aside from working with the family group, Seven Kaptan is an educator-therapist in the Anti-Homophobic Mental Health Initiative and her area of expertise is the issues transsexual people face. We asked her about the fundamental issues of homosexuality and transsexuality.

Dr. Kaptan talked to us about the processes LGBT people and their families go through. Her responses to our questions are below:

(more…)