LGBTI Rights in Turkey
“A powerful indictment of rising state-sponsored homophobia in Turkey and the heroic resistance of Turkish LGBTs and their allies. Revealing, ground-breaking, and inspiring.”
Peter Tatchell LGBTI rights campaigner, and Director, Peter Tatchell Foundation
“In this richly detailed study, Fait Muedini has his finger on the pulse of the progress and struggles of the resilient, unrelenting LGBTI movement in Turkey. This engaging and accessible book delves into the dynamic meeting places between LGBTI activism, international human rights regimes, religious cultures, law, and politics.”
Susan Pearce
Editor of Istanbul: Living with Difference in a Global City
“Fait Muedini has written a superb book documenting not only the threats, discrimination, and hostilities confronting the LGBTI community in Turkey, but also the courageous and hopeful actions of human rights activists. Muedini’s thoughtful and persuasive analysis reveals the hypocrisy of political elites who attempt to sell Turkey as a progressive state committed to human rights; a compelling and timely study of utmost importance.”
William Felice
Author of The Ethics of Interdependence: Global Human Rights and Duties
“This is a courageous work … probing analysis, thorough research, and rigorous intellectual honesty are the hallmarks of this challenging, well-written book … wonderful, desperately needed, timely.”
Allan Aubrey Boesak
Author (with Curtiss DeYoung) of Radical Reconciliation: Beyond Political Pietism and Christian Quietism
About LGBTI Rights in Turkey
In this book, I discuss the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) rights-based activism in Turkey, and subsequent government responses to this movement. I examine the statements public figures have made about homosexuality, and also how the government, along with other state institutions such as the police has carried out human rights violations towards the LGBTI community. I then shift the focus to how LGBTI activists are working to improve these conditions in Turkey. Before examining their specific tactics in Turkey, I review the academic and policy literature on LGBTI rights activism over the past decades. I look at what strategies LGBTI activists have taken in the Middle East and elsewhere, and within this lens, show what has been more successful as it relates to advancing LGBTI rights. Then, in the next chapters I present my findings with regards to how Turkish activists (as well as international activists working on Turkey specifically) are working to improve LGBTI rights. I have devoted additional attention to specifically examine the question of same-sex marriage in Turkey, and also a chapter on use of religious-based arguments to advance LGBTI rights. I then discuss challenges LGBTI activists face, and conclude the book with a set of policy recommendations.
In this book, not only do I examine state law, reports of rights abuses, but through fieldwork in Turkey, I also interviewed a number of NGO leaders and political human rights activists who have been fighting for LGBTI rights in some shape for form for years. During my time in Turkey (the in-person interviews took place during the Summer of 2015, and then follow up (and additional) interviews in the Spring of 2016), I spoke with activists of leading LGBTI organizations in Turkey which include Lambda Istanbul, Kaos GL, Pembe Hayat, Social Policies, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association (SPoD), and Families of LGBT’s in Istanbul (LİSTAG). I also interviewed the founder of a well-known LGBTI digital magazine GZone Magazine, and also municipality workers Sedef Çakmak and the late Boysan Yakar. Through these various interviews, I was able to gain insight into the histories of these organizations, as well as strategies employed by LGBTI activists in their pursuit of sexual equality rights in Turkey.
