Gay and trans candidates to run for Turkish general elections

 

Political parties in Turkey submitted their lists of candidates to the Supreme Election Board (YSK) yesterday as the country gets prepared for the June 7 general elections. Only 4 LGBTI activists were nominated as candidates for the 550-seat parliament and they are at lower positions on the lists, which postpones the hopes for the first openly LGBTI MP in Turkey until the 2019 elections.  

 

Baris Sulu, an openly gay HDP candidate, was nominated from Eskisehir in the last position. For Sulu, having LGBTI candidates itself is more valuable than their position on the list. However, he said that he wished there were more LGBTI candidates.

 

 

In a KaosGL.org interview last month, Sulu approached the ongoing Kurdish resolution process from LGBTI perspective and said: “Peace must also be made with the LGBTIs in the resolution process.”

 

The HDP, which has to pass the 10 percent electoral threshold, also nominated two feminist and LGBTI activists -Ozlem Sen from Mersin in the 4^th position and Gulistan Aydogdu from Ankara in the 12^th position- as candidates.

 

Deva Ozenen, a Christian trans woman in Izmir, was nominated as a candidate by the Anatolia Party which was founded by Emine Ulker Tarhan who resigned from the main opposition Republican People’s Party last year.

 

 

“I am an ‘other’ both as a trans and as a Christian. By nominating me as a candidate, the Anatolia Party showed that they are not canvassing,” Ozenen told KaosGL.org.  

 

Ozenen also underlined that Kemalism is not an elitist ideology but it embraces all oppressed groups including sexual minorities.