‘We are subject to violence as soon as we begin to exist as an LGBTI+ person’

Cayan Hakiki trimmed their finger nails and removed the polish last week to take Turkish university entrance exams without being hassled, as advocacy groups say transgender people face increasingly open discrimination.

“I didn’t want any problems at the entrance,” said Hakiki, 23, who was born male, but identifies as trans or queer.

“We are subject to all kinds of violence from the moment we begin to exist as an LGBTI+ person, whether from people on the street, the government or the police.”

Advocates say crackdowns on Pride events and other curbs on free speech and assembly reflect the government’s heavier hand, including recent open denunciations of the LGBTI community.

President Tayyip Erdogan’s government has dismissed claims of discrimination and said police are upholding the law against “unlawful” protests. In other instances the government has denied the existence of LGBTI individuals or said the concept was imported from the West and posed a threat to family values.

Transgender Europe, a network of organisations that advocate for rights, said 54 transgender people were killed in Turkey from 2008 to September 2020, the highest rate in Europe.

Last week, as international Pride month ended, Turkish authorities, including police in riot gear, detained an estimated 100 people taking part in parades and demonstrations across the country.

Unreported cases mean the number is likely higher, it said, adding that transgender people face discrimination that includes denial of jobs, housing, healthcare and education.

Last week, as international Pride month ended, Turkish authorities, including police in riot gear, detained an estimated 100 people taking part in parades and demonstrations across the country.

Police used teargas to disperse some of the hundreds who gathered and the government said they were responding in part to vandalism.

Such events have been banned in recent years, though in the past thousands took part in the main Istanbul Pride parade.

Asked to comment on claims government rhetoric and policies increase personal risk for transgender people, the interior ministry and palace did not immediately comment.

EU concerns about human rights have hindered Turkey’s accession process, which has been languishing for years after the bloc informally suspended membership talks.

For the third straight year, in 2020, Turkey ranked second-lowest on the “Rainbow Index” that measures respect for LGBTI human rights in 49 European countries, according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA-Europe).

Advocates such as Hakiki, who is part of the Ankara-based Pink Life transgender awareness group, said examples of discrimination are multiplying.

If there’s going to be a change in this country it will be led by the LGBTI+ movement. It is the government who is afraid of this movement and not the other way around.

—  Cayan Hakiki

In February, amid student and faculty protests over the naming of an Istanbul university rector, Erdogan and other officials seized on the display on campus of an image that combined Islamic imagery and rainbow flags.

Interior minister Suleyman Soylu labelled the students “LGBT deviants” and Erdogan praised his Islamist-rooted AK Party’s youth wing for not being “LGBT youth”.

The interior ministry and palace also did not immediately comment on claims that government rhetoric amounts to discrimination against transgender and other LGBTI people.

Last month Council of Europe commissioner for human rights Dunja Mijatovic sent a letter to Turkey’s interior and justice ministers expressing concern about rising homophobic narratives by some officials and called on them to reverse course and protect LGBTI rights.

“I want to stay in this country and continue our struggle for rights,” said Hakiki, who completed the entrance exams and aims to study performance arts management in Istanbul.

Hakiki joked they prefer the “B for Barbie” pronoun, but accepts using “they/them”.

“If there’s going to be a change in this country it will be led by the LGBTI+ movement. It is the government who is afraid of this movement and not the other way around,” they said.

— Reuters