Threats against LGBTQ community in Turkey on rise

Several thousand protesters gathered and marched Sunday (18 SEPT 2022) in the conservative heart of Istanbul to demand what they call a ban on gay propaganda and outlaw LGBTQ associations.

The "Big Family Gathering" echoed sentiments shared by top Turkish officials and a video ahead of the event was listed as a suggested public service announcement by Turkey's media watchdog, pointing to their blessing.

It was a mixed group of people, including children, women, nationalists, hard-line Islamists and conspiracy theorists who all argued they were there to protect the family and traditional values.

21-year-old construction worker Mehmet Yalcin was at the gathering, wearing a black headband with Islam's testimony of faith.

"We need to make all our defense against this LGBT, we need to get rid of it," he said.

Betul Colak, another protester who was wearing a scarf with the Turkish flag said, "we are a Muslim country and we say no to this, our statesmen and the other parties should all support this. The children are our children."

The anti-LGBTQ march went ahead without any police interference. Conversely, the freedom of assembly of LGBTI+ groups has been severely curtailed since 2015 on the grounds of security and morality.

Seeing images and the demands of the gathering had a chilling effect on the country's LGBTQ community.

Their concern isn't misplaced.

In 2021, ILGA Europe, an organization that publishes an annual legal index of LGBTI equality, ranked Turkey last from the bottom, only ahead of Azerbaijan, saying "countless hate crimes" took place against LGBTQ people along with hate speech from political leaders and pro-government media.

In 2014, an estimated 100,000 people gathered in Istanbul to celebrate Pride when Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan served as prime minister.

The following year, police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse it.

Since then, activists have tried to gather and detentions during this year's banned Pride hit a record with more than 370 people held overnight in Istanbul. Other LGBTI+ events have also been banned.

Homosexuality and transsexuality are not illegal in Turkey but Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu has called LGBTI+ "perverts."

In 2020, Erdogan defended the head of religious affairs after he claimed homosexuality "brings disease and causes the generation to decay."

In 2021, Erdogan also said mothers are the mast of a family and called on people to dismiss what "lesbians schmesbians" say, continuing his long-held belief of motherhood and family as the key identity for women.

Mine Eder, a professor of Political Science and International Relations at Bogazici University in Istanbul explained the shift.

She said the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) led by Erdogan followed a "pluralist" agenda in 2002 that "sort of" embraced European, liberal values and was inclusive towards liberals.

"It was AKP again and Erdogan himself that actually was defending that LGBTQ rights are human rights," she said, adding, "now, 20 years into this, you have an entirely different president that seems to be mobilizing based on these dehumanizing, criminal approaches to the LGBTQ movement itself."

Despite the hostility, the LGBTI+ movement is resilient and creative.

SPoD, which stands for Social Policies, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association, works to lobby politicians for inclusive policies, while providing legal, psychological and health-care assistance to the community and running a volunteer helpline.

"You can just shut down an office but I'm not going to disappear, my other colleagues aren't going to disappear. We'll be here no matter what," SPoD's lawyer and gay activist Umut Rojda Yildirim said.

The association stopped sharing their address online after threatening calls.

Others have done so as well and Kaos GL, the oldest LGBTI+ association in Turkey, deleted their Ankara address after a threat that allegedly came from the Islamic State group.

"It's easy for a maniac to try and hurt us after all the hate speech from state officials. This is a danger and we have this security concern," said Ogulcan Yediveren, a lobbyist at SPoD LGBTI+ association in Istanbul.

"But these security concerns, this atmosphere of fear, does not stop us from work and instead reminds us every time how much we need to work."

Yediveren, who is also gay, explained this wasn't unique to Turkey and could also be seen in Russia, Hungary, Brazil as well as in the U.S. during Donald Trump's presidency.

"Taking away existing rights, one by one, always happens in a process and we're in the midst of that process," he explained.