Trans activist: I want my ID card

 

The judge’s faulty verdict… the Supreme Court approving it without examining it… The fact that Registration Office is not objecting... The weight of all the irresponsibilities is on me again. Why should I file a lawsuit again? Who is to right this wrong?

 

Sister, this state or this judiciary has given a ridiculous verdict to the lawsuit I filed related to identity change after gender reassignment surgery.

 

After gender reassignment surgery one makes a claim to the Registry Office. The petition abstract for the lawsuit goes like this: “The client has undergone gender reassignment surgery. It is requested that her name shall be changed and she should be transferred from the male section to the female section on her ID …etc.” The court asks for a report from you – they ask for the evidence. This was exactly how it was written on my petition and the requested reports were presented. The court has decided: “Only the name change to be done.”

 

It is impossible to understand why the judge issued such a verdict. To lawyers objecting to the verdict, the judge said: “it is a written verdict, there is nothing we can do after this point.” The verdict was referred to a higher council, the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court did not object and approved the verdict. Sister, if we go for an appeal, it will take years. I didn’t want to go for an appeal. I don’t have time. They’ve been making me sweat for a piece of paper for years. As I wrote before, this appeal thing will at least take two years.

 

I went to the Registry Office.  The verdict was registered in the system and only my name was changed. I asked the clerk there if there was anything they could do, but the poor man simply said, “it would be a crime if we do otherwise.”  I took my blue ID: Zeynep Esmeray…[2]

 

I don’t get why these things always happen to me.  A clumsy, botched verdict.

 

I call out to everyone who has authority. ALL THAT YOU WILL GIVE is a piece of pink paper. Please give it to me, whatever it is, however it will be. I have evidence, I have reports, I don’t know what else you want.

 

After all that happened, there are puzzling questions in my head. I wonder, how rightful were the verdicts given to other lawsuits by the judiciary system that has ratified this simple case in this manner?

 

How will they ever arrive at proper verdicts from now on, how are we to trust our judiciary system. Why am I to suffer through this faulty verdict? I DON’T WANT TO WALK AROUND WITH A BLUE ID.[3]

 

The lawsuit will be filed again. Begin again from scratch.  The judge’s faulty verdict…the Supreme Court approving it without examining it…The fact that Registration Office is not objecting… The weight of all the irresponsibilities is on me again. Why should I file a lawsuit again? Who is to right this wrong? Who is to give me my identity, my most natural right? A verdict like wrongful execution, like dead man walking.There are so many more verdicts like this. I want my identity.

 

[1] Esmeray is a well-known trans activist who has brought gender issues to the forefront with her column in a daily newspaper and with her one-person plays, which have been a great success.

[2] Zeynep Esmeray: Zeynep is a common female name in Turkish and Esmeray is also an unmistakably female name.

[3] In Turkey, ID cards are color-coded based on gender. Male IDs are blue and female IDs are pink

 

Translation: LGBTI News Turkey