Promoting Tolerance - LGBT in Turkey by Jarl Hjalmarson

PROMOTING TOLERANCE - LGBT IN TURKEY

This report is based on the discussions between LGBT organizations, civil society activists, researchers, journalists and politicians at the conference “Promoting Tolerance – LGBT in Turkey,” hosted by the Freedom Research Association and the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation in Ankara, September 2015. The report aims to describe a variety of opinions on the current situation and how to move forward on issues of tolerance and LGBT in the country. A special thanks to the contributors to this report, the participants at the conference and the representatives of LambdaIstanbul, Siyah Pembe Üçgen Association, Pembe Hayat and KAOS GL. Grants from the Swedish Institute’s Creative Force programme have made the publication of this report possible.

TOLERANCE – A BACKGROUND We can say that there are three possible reactions when faced with differences of ethnicity, religion, ideology, sexual orientation or gender identity. The first one is ‘confirmation’, which considers differences as a source of richness; the second is a reaction of ‘indifference’ that involves neither a positive nor a negative judgment; and the third is ‘disapproval’. It can be said that the first two reactions have a positive contribution to social peace. While the first reaction has a positive view, it may not only be limited to recognizing the existence of differences, but also involve a demand to the rest of society to make a positive contribution to ensure that those differences actually exist. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that multicultural policies are the manifestation of such an approach. The second reaction, indifference, engages neither a positive nor a negative judgment on the object of difference and rather ignores it. When it comes to the third reaction, disapproval, two paths can be followed. To repress or eliminate the object of difference causes social conflict; preventing that act of repression may on the other hand give way to peace. This second path is the concept of tolerance. By abstaining from repressing something,

despite not approving of it, an actor displays what is called the paradox of tolerance. A person or an institution refrains from suppressing an object of difference that disturbs it, due to a principle that it cherishes more. One of the arguments for tolerance used by philosophers such as John Locke, was to point to the high cost of intolerance. This defense of tolerance based on a cost-benefit analysis has been subsequently supported by a rights-based tolerance approach. According to this approach, people and groups who have different opinions, beliefs and lifestyles than those of the majority within a society and/or those who hold power shall be provided with the freedom to enjoy their human rights. In other words, people who have a different way of life, and make different choices regarding their sexual orientation, shall be shown tolerance on the grounds of a general principle of freedom. At this point, it is more appropriate to speak, not about a state defending a particular way of life and tolerating the others, but treating every way of life equally based on the principle of impartiality. We can call this political tolerance. Individuals living under liberal democracies, where political tolerance is put into effect, enjoy their different ways of life without being worried that they could be repressed by the hand of public authority. 3

Political tolerance in itself doesn’t guarantee LGBT individuals from experiencing challenges, such as marginalization or condemnation. This could be referred to as social intolerance, which can be very intense in particular when small communities make life insufferable for the victims of intolerance. We could at this point urge those who show social intolerance to be more tolerant, in accordance with the principle of empathy. One of the main havens of victims of intolerances is, of course, the existence of alternatives. In this context, the existence of a market economy based on private property is one of the effective tools for offering alternative living spaces for people who adopt different lifestyles.1

This short introduction to the concept of tolerance was taken from Bican Şahin’s article entitled “Farklılık, Hoşgörü ve Ak Parti İktidarı: Gezi Parkı Sürecinin Düşündürdükleri” (“Differences, Tolerance and the AKP Government: Reflections on the Gezi Park Process”) and published in Liberal Düşünce Dergisi’s Winter/Summer 2013 edition.

CURRENT CHALLENGES IN TURKEY In today’s Turkey, many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals (LGBT) face discrimination based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity, and are often disadvantaged compared with other citizens. Although there are no regulations in the constitution and other legislations banning their identities, LGBT individuals are often left unprotected against the many violations of their human rights, not least the right to life. Activists, human rights defenders, civil society organizations and politicians working with LGBT issues in Turkey are facing both political and social pressure, being targeted by hate speech and discrimination. In Pew Research Center’s report on “the Global Divide on Homosexuality2” from 2013, the vast majority, 78 percent, of Turkish respondents answered No to the question “Should society accept homosexuality?”, while only 9 percent said Yes. In 2009, Professor Yılmaz Esmer from Bahçeşehir University posed in his “Radicalism and Extremism” study the question “Who wouldn't you want to be the neighbor of?” 87 percent of

http://www.pewglobal.org/files/2014/05/Pew-Global-AttitudesHomosexuality-Report-REVISED-MAY-27-2014.pdf (2015-12-01)

the respondents answered ‘a homosexual’. This answer was the highest response to all of the questions. Among the gravest threats faced by LGBT individuals in Turkey today are hate murders, becoming more visible in recent years. Hate murders are now being debated in broader circles, and are starting to have increased media coverage since the killing of Ahmet Yıldız on July 15, 2008, while also being followed by LGBT and human rights organizations. Repression, violence and discrimination are especially practiced visibly and intensively against transgender people. The fact that they are more visible makes them easy targets to hate murders, in an environment of insecurity and insufficient legal support. Organizations working with the trans-community witness an increase in hate murders, suicides and how many trans-persons are struggling in poverty. Further noticing police ill-treatment and attitudes in which trans-people are seen as potential criminals, the organizations blame the state and the legal system of turning trans-people into targets of discrimination, resulting in a situation where they don’t believe in the justice system. Many trans-persons find prostitution in insecure and unhealthy environments as the only possible way to an income, facing exclusion from education, training and employment. 6

Discrimination at work & school Discrimination against LGBT individuals in professional life is an important concern. In 2009, Halil İbrahim Dinçdağ, a football referee in the Black Sea province of Trabzon, was expelled from his profession for being homosexual, which was revealed by media despite a court order to protect his identity. Dinçdağ has been unable to find a job since and has received murder threats following the incident. This example is one among many of LGBT individuals who struggle to find a job, experience discrimination in their professional life or even lose their job. According to the results of a research on social and economic problems faced by LGBT individuals in Turkey from this year3, 78.9 percent of LGBT individuals are not open about their sexual orientation and/or identity at work. 55.7 percent had heard/seen

negative

comments/reactions

about

sexual

orientation from a colleague in their office. Compulsory military service and the refusal to recognize the right to conscientious objection are also resulting in important violations of rights for both heterosexual and homosexual men,

Yılmaz, V. and Göçmen, İ. (June, 2015), “Summary Results of the Social and Economic Problems of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT) Individuals in Turkey Research”, Vol. IV, Issue 6, pp.97-105, Centre for Policy and Research on Turkey (ResearchTurkey), London, Research Turkey. (http://researchturkey.org/?p=9142)

as well as trans-individuals, in Turkey. According to a report released by Human Rights Watch from 20084, homosexual men who were demanding exemption from military service had to endure psychological as well as medical exams, based on myths about homosexuality, and were even forced to show pictures taken while they were acting as a passive partner in an act of anal intercourse. Discrimination also surface in education. The research on social and economic problems of LGBT individuals in Turkey, suggested that 67.4 percent of LGBT persons had received negative comments/reactions at school due to their sexual orientations and/or identity, while 8.3 percent of responders said they were forced to quit school. At universities, 51.7 percent of respondents said they were confronted by negative comments/reactions on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s difficult for LGBT individuals in Turkey to find places where they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need to hide their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. 57.9 percent of respondents in the above mentioned research said there was no space where they could

https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/05/21/we-need-lawliberation/gender-sexuality-and-human-rights-changing-turkey (2015-1201)

feel safe (tea garden, café, restaurant, association, youth center, political party office, etc.) closer than a half-an-hour from where they lived. LGBT associations & the challenges they face The right to assembly and association as well as the freedom of expression and opinion have during the years been violated by state authorities and institutions, for reasons such as “public moral.” The LGBT association LambdaIstanbul was founded in 1993 and organized the first Pride Parade in June 2003, in Istanbul’s bustling İstiklal Avenue. The march has been staged ever since, but during this year’s event, participants faced an attempt from the Istanbul Governor’s Office to prevent the march from taking place. The violent police attacks on those present have drawn strong reactions in Turkey and across the world. In 2006, a legal trial was initiated to close the association. Despite the legal action it wasn’t closed and, far from it, thanks to public support it was mentioned in the European Union’s Progress Reports on Turkey. Another association is Kaos GL, founded in Ankara in 1994. The association published the first issue of its magazine, Kaos GL Dergisi, on September 20, 1994. The magazine has been published ever since, becoming a legal entity on September 15, 2005. However, the Governor’s Office of Ankara filed a 9

complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office on charges of, “Founding an association contrary to law and morals.” Eventually the prosecutor on media ruled a nonsuit after examining the complaint. On the internet and in social media, a similar form of violation is evident. The internet is heavily regulated in Turkey, to the extent that regulators have the authority to ban access up to 48 hours without a court decision. According to the Kaos GL’s “LGBTI People’s Freedom of Expression on the Internet” report, some LGBT websites are constantly banned. The LGBT associations’ visibility increased during the 2013 Gezi Park protests and with the municipal elections the following year. Today, there’s an LGBT organization and/or support group in nearly 13 of the 81 provinces of the country. LambdaIstanbul, Kaos GL, Siyah Pembe Üçgen, Pembe Hayat, Istanbul LGBTI and Hevi are some of the associations active in increasing awareness, education, advocacy and media work. LGBT in Turkish politics The local elections held in March 2014 experienced a massive LGBT participation in the democratic political process. A number of openly LGBT candidates took part in the elections, representing various political parties. Even though none of them

were elected, a couple of LGBT activists got employed by the newly elected mayors as their consultants. LGBT associations from eleven cities arranged a political school for the first time, in Istanbul. As a result, a manifesto was prepared towards the elections, presenting demands to the local administrations. Most of the LGBT associations and initiatives in Turkey followed up, monitored and reported on the election process and several candidates for mayor from different parties signed a Bona Fide Protocol on LGBT friendly cities. Four of these candidates were elected as mayors: in Kadikoy, Sisli, Besiktas in Istanbul, and Akdeniz in Mersin. After the elections, these local administrations started to shift their regulations, hire staff and determine policies in a more LGBT-aware manner. A public health center in Sisli municipality changed their working hours in an attempt to facilitate the access to their services, they also started to facilitate free and anonymous HIV-tests. Besiktas municipality ran an awareness campaign through their off-street billboards on the 20 November Trans Remembrance Day. Kadikoy municipality civic council established a separate LGBTI council within its civic initiative. Akdeniz municipality in Mersin employed the first openly trans-individual as coordinator of the city council and plans to build a new LGBT inclusive socio-cultural center. 11

On the national level, there are, after this year’s snap parliamentary elections, four political parties in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey: the conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP), the secularist and social democrat Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the pro-Kurdish, left-leaning, People’s Democratic Party (HDP). Already in 1994, the leftwing Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP) was the first party forbidding discrimination based on sexual orientation and sexual identity. It was also the first party to present a transgender candidate, Demet Demir, in local elections, for an Istanbul constituency. In more recent years, Öykü Evren Özen presented her candidacy from Bursa in the general election in 2007, but was vetoed by the high election board. Four years later, Özen was declared a candidate for the CHP but was eventually not included in the definitive list. She was later elected as a district and provincial delegate for CHP with a large number of votes. CHP has now started to stress the importance of the issue in its official discourse and Sedef Çakmak, a member of CHP’s municipal assembly group in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district, has become the first openly LGBT individual having a seat in a municipal assembly. 12

HDP is often featured as a party that has included LGBT individuals in its organizational structures. Barış Sulu, who is openly gay, was a candidate during this year’s general elections, representing HDP from Eskişehir. Both Sulu and HDP received huge pressure during the campaign because of his sexual orientation. There is an effort from LGBT groups to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the items for discussion in the making of a new Turkish constitution, but this has been rejected by the AKP and the MHP. Turkey doesn’t recognize gay marriages or other forms of same-sex union. The possibility of adoption for gay parents is also out of question. Media & popular culture Media and popular culture can have an important influence on how society at large view minorities as well as in changing perceptions and challenging prejudices. In Turkey, the depiction and coverage of LGBT persons in mainstream media have for many years been an issue and although we may state relative improvements in the field, hate speech is still an important problem. Mainstream newspapers and TV have largely improved their language in their LGBT-related content and the major outlets

are today using a careful language. However, this doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t necessarily mean that demonization and targeting are completely eradicated. Targeting of LGBT persons and hateful language are now largely concentrated to conservative outlets such as Yeni Akit. These newspapers occasionally depict LGBT individuals as infidels and deviants or different sexual orientations as illness. Kaos GL publishes a monthly paper on how LGBT persons are depicted in the mainstream media. They review all LGBTrelated news (above a certain level of circulation or rating) and mark the news as positive (if they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t find any negative connotation in the coverage) or negative. By the figures for 2014, positive coverage on LGBT individuals in mainstream Turkish media is an encouraging 71.4 percent out of 1087 LGBT-related news reviewed throughout the year. This is certainly an improvement when compared to 59.9 percent the year before. Yet, on occasion they observe how LGBT persons and organizations are purposefully targeted by the paper as an editorial policy. These papers use substantially hateful language and stereotyping in their headlines, coverage or language. Yeni Akit (New Convention) or Vahdet (Unity) are clear examples. Although they might be deemed marginal depending on their circulation (28th and 30th when it comes to daily circulation), 14

their views on LGBT issues are known to be shared by an important part of Turkish society. According to the report, negative coverage comes out broadly in three formats; stereotyping (85.8 percent), hate speech (12.4 percent) and misleading image use (1.8 percent). Most common forms of stereotyping are as follows; - When covering an offense, relating an offender’s sexual orientation to the crime - News refer to the sexual orientation of a person, even though the content has nothing to do with it - Using the words “Tranny” or “Shemale” as an insult in the coverage - Using words as “deviant, pervert” in the presentation of the news

MOVING FORWARD To move forward on LGBT issues in Turkey a number of steps can be taken, by the Turkish LGBT associations, but also by the international community. There is a demand from the LGBT associations in Turkey for EU diplomats to be more responsive towards their activities and invitations. There’s also a request for the EU progress reports to include more LGBT-related issues and human rights violations, not least those affecting trans-persons today. The LGBT associations describe how the visibility of the issues on inter-governmental meetings would have an empowering impact on their work. Meanwhile, the Turkish LGBT associations face a number of internal challenges to advance their important agenda. One difficulty in reaching out to a broader public is that the associations tend to belong to the political left wing activist circles, often combining a discourse based on discrimination due to "sexual orientation and gender identity" with a discourse based on the difference between "social classes". It can, in these circumstances, be a bit hard for “white collar” LGBT individuals to identify themselves with the associations.

A further argument in this discussion is that the LGBT associations only gathers a certain segment of the LGBT population in Turkey and that there is an important distance between them and the non-activist LGBT population. The walls between these two worlds (activists and non-activists) may not be fully abolished but at least they may be penetrable. One challenge is also how to deal with the diverse number of issues on this broad agenda. Trans-persons sometimes tend to have different concerns than homosexual individuals. It might in this sense be good for the LGBT associations to be more specialized per group of interest. This does of course not mean that they shall not act together in order to deal with common problems. But one shall not omit that individuals in these two groups can have different experiences and live in different environments. Strenght through funding & partnerships Funding is key in order for any association to be able to conduct advocacy work and influence politicis and society. One challenge is often to attract private fundings for these projects. An important argument is that there are always businessmen in the country who prefer an open and tolerant Turkey. To take one example, those in the tourism sector do not want to frighten away LGBT tourists, who often spend substantial sums of 17

money on travel. This is the first aspect of the fundraising part: to prospect potential donors and ask them. There is in many countries an increasing commercial interest in the LGBT community.

The purchasing power of the gay

community has gone from being a fringe or marginalized market to a thriving industry. According to some surveys upwards 90% of gay people support businesses which target “pink money,” while actively shunning "anti-gay" companies. One part of the work is also for the LGBT assosications to treat potential donors as partners and to provide them the information that an investor in a business would want. “What will you do, at what cost, and with what measurable results?” Just as an entrepreneur would ask investors to invest in a business, the associations could show confidence to demonstrate how their work will make Turkey a better country and how they are planning to realize the purposes and goals that they have in common with the donors.

CONCLUSIONS As can be seen, there is a serious amount of intolerance against LGBT individuals in Turkey, both at a political and social level. The political intolerance shown by the state against LGBT individuals in the public space takes the form of discrimination in terms of marriages, adoption, working as a civil servant, or being enrolled in the military service. Such intolerance from the state is unacceptable. The state is an institution that should treat all its citizens equally. A big part of the population in Turkey display social intolerance against LGBT individuals. The forms of social intolerance that reach the point of a violation of rights, should be challenged legally. While fighting against lighter forms of social intolerance, such as marginalization and condemnation, involves fostering empathy and tolerance in schools and among individuals in society, through education, culture and awareness-raising.

The Freedom Research Association (Turkey) was established to make liberal democracy understood, based on principles of individual liberty, toleration, rule of law, separation of powers and market economy. It aims to identify the barriers before its consolidation in Turkey and suggest policies to overcome them; to carry out research, to hold conferences and publish studies. http://ozgurlukarastirmalari.com/

The

Jarl

Hjalmarson

Foundation

(Sweden)

promotes

cooperation and European development based on freedom, democracy and human rights. This is done through education and information directed to political parties and civil society organizations. http://www.hjalmarsonfoundation.se/