Strengthening One Another Feels So Good!

Against homophobia making us alone and coming up with invisible obstacles everywhere to prevent expressing ourselves, strengthening one another feels so good.

 

The start of Kaos GL dates back to 1994 when we started our magazine with the same title but I want to point that I remember I found myself thinking about it during the first years at college. For the second half of 80s the feminist movement in Turkey was so vibrant and I was trying to catch up with that from Ankara. Unfortunately, there was no out gay like me in my faculty or at least I haven’t seen one. The rhetoric about homosexuality was mostly originated from Istanbul-based media and along the same line the idea of gay organization could be heard from Istanbul every now and then. Naturally, we were watching Istanbul with curiosity and excitement. At this point, we need to see the formation and perpetuity of Kaos GL in its bond between the street and the Academia. Besides feeding each other, this bond helped a reciprocal transformation and this development brought about the institutionalization of Kaos GL and the anti-heterosexist movement, in general. 

 

In Ankara, after we sought and found each other as gays, the idea of Kaos GL and that we could look after our and each other’s lives became stronger. As we claimed our ordinary lives, our ties got improved and our relationships continued. In the process, publishing the Kaos GL Magazine regularly turned our informal bonds into a lateral network and the reach of our relationships had gone far beyond Ankara.

 

Publishing the magazine regularly increased the self-confidence and the faith in change within gay community. Thanks to this faith, the magazine has been fed both from the Academia and the street regularly. Under conditions that gays are not visible one by one, gay reality and problems of gays had been visible through the magazine and they circulated it among different groups of society. This was constitutive for how gay movement has been forming.

 

Very simple! I am gay and what we call as work or struggle is simply claming our own lives and expanding the area we can live on freely. During the first years of Kaos GL, we used to gather in parks, in streets or in houses and socialize; no matter their status everyone would agree that nothing could be changed in this country, thus a huge pessimism and many concerns. The first step in fighting homophobia has been encouraging the gays against this somehow invisible dark atmosphere which entrapped them. As their confidence increased, the first threshold had been past with self-respect. Following this, we became more comfortable as well and we improved both Kaos GL and the magazine itself. Against homophobia making us alone and coming up with invisible obstacles everywhere to prevent expressing ourselves, strengthening one another feels so good. 

 

 

As Kaos GL we are in favor of dialogue with any person and institution unless they pose a threat on our lives. It will go like this. Because we want to transform this society, we believe in that; homophobia would not vanish into thin air but still we hope to drag it to a minimum and that homophobes keep their feelings and opinions to themselves, not pour onto the political arena.

 

Homophobia now shows up not as a mere personal psychological approach but rather both an inter-group ideological relation and a way of institutionalized discrimination from the current policies. As a matter of fact, coming across with a homophobe would not irritate me much as a person. For we need to get to know different people and lives to get rid off our prejudices.

 

 

Some of the homophobic attitudes and political implementations might be specific to “us” either culturally or socially but in the end today homophobia is a global issue!

 

Unfortunately, until very recent times people and institutions with extremely different points on various issues did not hesitate to go hand-in-hand when it came to homosexuality. As a result of our attempts to do the impossible, now there are straight people fighting homophobia and institutions which say discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people is intolerable.

 

Above all, we need to keep in mind that homophobia being so common is related to institutionalized homophobia more than personal behavior. In the formation of Turkish Republic and in the following period, state policies assumed as if the society consisted only of straight people and anyone who did not fit in the heterosexual frame was excluded from the public domain, society and every part of life. Discriminated, criminalized and devalued by the state policies, gays became the easy targets for the ordinary citizens. As gays were not mentioned even at the bottom of the hierarchy of rights and it was known that the violation of their right to life would not be punished by the state, homophobia became an ordinary fact and gays were left unprotected from cruelty of other citizens.

Although there were political approaches in favor of the rights of homosexuals and legitimizing the homosexual desire even 200 years ago, what we call as “gay rights” came about in social movements in the second half of 20th century. Today, LGBT rights are recognized in many places in the world, especially in Western countries, however, the debate on “gay marriage” is still very hot. Because the institutionalized homophobia makes up itself through traditional family institution, religions and ideologies. In Turkey the state policies had institutionalized homophobia through those institutions and it didn’t refrain from shaping the socio-cultural relations. This success of dominant ideology showed up as an expansion of sexism and conservatism all over the society, even among dissident groups. As a matter of fact, in such a social formation it takes time for differences to create channels to speak for themselves, express their demands and join the society as an equal party. 

 

As Kaos GL Association, we prepared “Marriage/Family Institution and Civil Partnership Policy” because of the rights and in particular marriage were constrained to general morality and sexist policies. Here is what we highlighted in that document:

 

“The issue of recognizing LGBT people’s partnerships legally is often dealt with in a paparazzi manner both in media and public, thus no real discussion. Kaos GL Association criticizes this situation and aims to discuss it as a social problem. In this discussion, Kaos GL Association percieves the issue as a need to change the heteronormative and sexist marriage and family institution, and make rights and services equally available to all. Therefore, its struggle will be in that direction.”

 

 

While today’s psychiatry institution and World Health Organization do not categorize homosexual behavior as a “disease”, Kavaf’s statement was not due to her lack of knowledge. On the contrary, the Minister expressed her ideological preference. Of course, since she was not an ordinary homophobic citizen but a State representative and her statement meant a discriminatory political approach and a call for hate crime our reaction as Kaos GL has been strong-minded and huge. It was a call for hate crimes because the translation of her statement was: As a government we do not value homosexuals, we regard them as diseased; we will ignore homophobic behavior and attitudes and not punish them.

 

We made our reaction constant with women’s organization and luckily enough she was not appointed to the ministry for the next term. Although the new minister has shown no sign of recognition, at least she does not use a wrong and discriminatory rhetoric. We hope that Minister Fatma Şahin will not be defeated by the homophobic approach in her party and be able to make policies to protect LGBT people’s right to life from homophobic and transphobic violence.

I watched the movie with pleasure. If its success at film festivals continues at the box offices too, “Zenne” might make it clear that there are people in this country whose right to life is being violated because s/he loved someone of same-sex.

 

As “honor” is always perceived as a local issue we like to call the murder in the movie an honor murder committed with a hate incentive, thinking that it’s correct in terms of jurisdiction as well. Out of this context, it looks like a phenomenon limited to a certain socio-cultural locality. This might hinder the homophobic and transphobic hate which prepares for the violation of right to life with the use of other discrimination ideologies. Of course the discrimination ideologies I mention is the nationalist and racist approaches against Kurds living in that locality which appears on every occasion. The government is responsible to ensure the right of life of women and LGBT people so that they can live without the fear of being killed. Besides legal regulations, it should protect women and LGBT people from honor and hate murders. Only such a political decisiveness push back honor and hate.

 

As Kaos GL our struggle has been to make problematic areas visible with LGBT people. Only with the visibility of those areas discrimination LGBT people are exposed to in socio-cultural domain and public sphere could be identified. The first step to be taken to stop discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is to recognize the LGBT reality. Only if State recognizes the LGBT reality, legal regulations against discrimination can follow and such regulations could bring protection.

 

For that purpose, on the context of constitutional equality, our current demand is to add the expressions “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” in the article which regulates equality.