With no legal safeguards, discrimination is rampant in the workplace, classroom, and heath centers, as well as in access to public services. “The one little space where gays and transsexuals have been pushed into is the entertainment sector, as long as they avoid political statements - but it’s very limiting and isolating.” “We face discrimination every single day in the workplace, in schools, and at hospitals,” says Sulu. Meanwhile, one of Turkey's most famous singers, Bulent Ersoy, is a transsexual woman who fronts a Pepsi advertising campaign.īut without legal protections, the thaw in cultural attitudes means Turkey remains a hostile place for LGBT people.
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Two years ago, rights activist Michelle Demishevich made headlines when she became Turkey's first openly transgender TV reporter, although she was later dismissed from her job. That’s helped pave the way for more visibility for LGBT figures. LGBT-rights organizations have grown more numerous and better organized - buoyed, in part, by the their prominent role in the antigovernment protests here in 2013. “The Turkish state has, for the most part, gotten around to accepting the idea that LGBT people exist, but there’s a major problem in recognizing that these individuals are human beings who have rights that need to be protected,” says Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International's researcher on Turkey. Turkey’s solution for combating discrimination inside jails is to segregate sexual minorities in “pink prisons.” While Turkey now stages the largest gay pride parade in the Muslim world, there are no laws against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Sex-change operations are legal, but only when preceded by sterilization. Homosexuality was decriminalized in the Ottoman era, but the Turkish Army considers it a “psychosexual disorder” and bars gays from serving.
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What do we do now? A growing movementįor lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals, life in Turkey is full of contradictions. Yet activists caution that progress on gay rights in Turkey is still stymied by a dearth of legal protections, persistent discrimination, and anti-LGBT violence.Ĭolumbine. “Society is ready for a change and I believe the time is now for someone who’s open about his identity to fight for LGBT issues in Parliament.”Īlthough he faces an uphill battle, Sulu’s candidacy speaks to the LGBT community’s rising profile in a largely conservative Muslim society. “What we want is to be recognized as equal citizens of this country,” says Sulu, a candidate with the People’s Democratic Party, a new leftist party.
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Hoping to draw attention to the need for marriage equality, the couple attempted to formally tie the knot in 2011 but were refused by Turkish authorities. Sulu’s partner is Aras Güngör, a gay transgender man who is still considered a woman by the government. Sulu became active in Turkey’s burgeoning LGBT-rights movement. As a young boy, he waged a solo-campaign against nuclear energy, writing to dozens of Turkish newspapers to oppose the construction of a reactor. The 37-year-old LGBT activist describes himself as a lifelong fighter.
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Four years ago, he and his partner became the first gay couple to apply for a marriage license in Turkey now he’s running as the first openly gay candidate for a seat in Parliament.