14/06/2024 | Writer: Kaos GL
LGBTI+s held a banner saying “Neither on the street nor on cruise, you are not alone lubunya!” LGBTI+s dispersed to various points of Çankaya against all the prevention efforts of the police and marched from Kolej to Esat.
The 3rd Ankara Pride March took place on June 12th. Police officers were stationed at various points from Kızılay to Tunalı to prevent the march. LGBTI+ participants, dispersing to different areas of Çankaya, first gathered at Kızılay. The police searched the bags of those blockaded. LGBTI+ individuals who managed to leave the blockade marched from Kolej along Bülbülderesi Street, carrying a banner that read, “Neither on the street nor on cruise, you are not alone, lubunya!”
The press statement read by LGBTI+s included the following statements:
“We, the lubunyas (queers) of Ankara, are here today to celebrate our month of pride with the 3rd Ankara Pride March! We exist in these streets and avenues not only this month but every month despite your hatred. From here, we call out to the alliance of hate, to the AKP-MHP (Justice and Deveopment Party- Nationalist Movement Party) government, and to Yeniden Refah (New Welfare Party), which cannot do politics without mentioning us. Our honourable struggle for existence will defeat your hatred! Get used to it, we are not leaving, we are not giving up our living spaces!
In Esat-Eryaman, Bornova, and Bayram Street, we are armed with the struggle of trans women whom you want to evict from their homes. We know that the persecution of trans people at home, on the cruise, in the workplace is the result of the LGBTI+ hate policies of the AKP government. Today we are here with our rebellion. We look into the eyes of this order that drags trans people to death and demand accountability. We are angry and we do not forget! We do not forget Derin, Ganimet, Candle, Ecem Seçkin, Hande Kader, Eylül Cansın, Okyanus Efe Özyavuz, Didem Akay, Ahmet Yıldız, Zirve Soylu, Hande Buse Şeker, Esra Ateş, Berrak Yılmaz, and many more of our friends.
With our enthusiasm from the May 17 march of the Ankara tradition, with our desire for the streets since 2021, with our queer memory, we are in Tunalı and all over Ankara again today! We do not give up our right to access health, justice, and a decent life. We are neither wrong nor alone, knowing this, we will continue to fight against the violence you subject us to every day we open our eyes. We will not be defeated by your bans, ignorance, violence, and oppression!
We know very well that cis-hetero patriarchy and capitalism are mechanisms of violence that go hand in hand. Our compulsory professions that you force us to do in order to live are our honour. We will drown your violence with the honour of prostitution, we will make noise with our struggle for equality not this month but every month. Salute to the lubunya who struggle for existence by resisting in campuses, factories, workplaces, in all areas of life. Greetings to the queers who cannot access their trade union rights, who are deprived of equal opportunities due to the pink wall, who are unemployed, and who resist for a humane life despite all these!
We are against the occupation in both Palestine and Kurdistan! We resist your fascism, which detains and arrests our comrades who resist the massacre of the people of Palestine and Kurdistan, not only this month but every month! We demand freedom for Palestine, Kurdistan, and lubunya.
We are against the government’s proposed massacre law for stray animals. While violence against stray animals must be prevented in order to protect and sustain every life, we do not accept your laws that are a cover for slaughtering animals! We defend life against your speciesist, anthropocentric policies.
We also cry out in remembrance of our friends who were subjected to disproportionate police violence in Eskişehir. You cannot criminalize us. Even if we choose the month of pride to celebrate our existence, our lives, and commemorate our struggle, we are fighting for life by resisting #biraydeğilheray (notonemonthbuteverymonth). As we want the whole city, not the ghettos, we want to exist in equality not only in the month of honour, but every month, every day, in every field. Our existence, our struggle, that is, we are valuable! We will not end with your hatred, oppression, violence, and ignoring. We are so beautiful, we are so valuable, go crazy as long as we live! We are transvestites, we are faggots, we are transgenders, we are here! We cry out from Ankara to all the people of Turkey: We want not one month but every month, we are not going anywhere. Get used to it, make peace, we are here!”
Tags: human rights
