Istanbul Trans Pride: We are not going anywhere!

 

The fifth trans week, which was organized around the theme “state is the real perpetrator” ended with the march on Istiklal Street. The week, which was commenced by putting up the rainbow flag on the Bosphorus Bridge, was also concluded with fitting glamour. Thousands of people chanted, “We are transvestites. We are here. Get used to it. We are not going anywhere.”

 

 

Trans Pride Week Committee, which was called to march by the Istanbul LGBTI Association, was stopped at the entrance of Taksim Square by the police. After police stopped the march to move any forward towards Taksim Square, thousands gathered in front of the French Cultural Center. The police intervention was protested with the slogan “Police, prostitute yourself and live proudly.”

 

After the short termed police interference, thousands started marching, shouting “Don’t be silent! Trans people do exist.” Aside from the main banner reading “state is the real perpetrator,” there was also a giant rainbow banner as well as a trans solidarity flag.  

 

 

Some of the slogans were, “We are transvestites, get used to us, we are not going anywhere,” “make a noise against hate,” “We will knock down this transphobic state,” “Tayyip run away, the queer are coming,” “We might be queer, get used to it, we are everywhere,” and “Police, prostitute yourself and live produly.” Those who perished during the Gezi Park protests were commemorated along with trans people who were lost to hate murders. Thousands of people marched against hate with great enthusiasm.

 

The homophobia of the Yürüyüş (The March) Magazine was also protested with the slogan, “We do not want a transphobic revolution”, when the crowd passed by the stand of Grup Yorum. A nod to the revolution in Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) was made by the slogan “Biji berxwedana YPG.”

 

 

After the hours-long march, the crowd finally reached Tunel Square. Here, an “Alternative Beauty Pageant” was conducted to counter normative pageants that push the heterosexist sense of beauty. With the motto, “trans are beautiful”, all participants were declared winners.

 

 

A press release was read by the Istanbul LGBTI, emphasizing that 49 trans women in only two years were victims of hate murders. Istanbul LGBTI declared “our sorrow is too great” and “our lives are not this cheap,” while promising to resist all pressures by celebrating trans pride.

 

“49 trans women in the past two years have been victims of hate murders. From what we know, 70 trans women have been killed since 2002.”

 

 

“Seda’s court case ended yesterday.  Seda was the trans who was beaten to death and thrown in a mosque garden after the campaign to exile trans people from Avcilar Meis Housing Complex. Her killer’s sentence was decreased from life imprisonment to 15 years, the court citing the fact that the victim was a trans individual. According to the system of punishment execution, the killer will be imprisoned only 8 years by making use of supervised release.

 

“There are thousands of trans women in these lands, who lose their lives due to this systematic violence of the state. This is because the state pushes violence, discrimination, racism, otherization, cruelty and bullying as a way of life.

 

“This, obviously, is not the first murder. Unfortunately, it will not be the last. As we have been saying for years on the streets, in squares and in front of the barricades, trans murders are systematic and political. The state continues to live the door ajar for the massacre of trans people by the compromises and encouragement provided to all killers. It looks as if the state points to the trans as free targets for everyone to vent their stress.

 

“Those in power, the rulers, the masters! Those who refuse to hear us, those who only know us through biased news items in pro-government tabloids. We know very well the meaning of these repeated murders.

 

 

“Our resolve to change this course of events is getting stronger. We will stop the hate murders and trans killings!

 

“We know that the trans are not the only victims of these crimes and massacres. We pursue justice for the 8 souls lost since the beginning of the Gezi Resistance, the two souls who were killed because they went up against the building of new army camps in Lice as well as tens of people under arrest and custody such as Evrim and Murat, who were arrested during their struggle for democracy in Dersim. The women and children who continue to suffer all kinds of torture including rape by men are different faces and victims of the same brand of slaughter. Transsexuals are the easiest targets in this slaughter, which they are trying to spin as normal. All of these murders are being committed in the name of nationalism, purity, family, morality and religion.

 

 

“It is our duty to remind you! Our lives are not that cheap! Our eyes are open and our will is one hundred percent. We will come back hardened and stronger after every attack. We will continue to resist to the systematic violence by the police and the state.

 

“Those who declare themselves to be the rulers, Hear this! We have started our struggle that you will not grant us our rights, but we will do whatever is necessary to take them.”

 

“In the struggle against hate crimes on LGBTI people, a new regulation that includes the terms ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ has to be drawn up.

 

“The regulations on ‘prostitution’ that is the vehicle to force trans sex workers to be in unsafe environments has to be changed. The right to work in your preferred profession has to be guaranteed and the conditions on LGBTI individuals’ employments must be improved.

 

“Sex work should be seen as a legitimate occupation and sex workers must be granted union rights.

 

“Efforts should be made against the discriminatory stance of the judicial system and the security forces on trans individuals. The reductions made to the sentences of trans people’s killers on the grounds of ‘unjust provocation’ and ‘good behavior’ must come to an end. The hate aspect of the murders must be emphasized.

 

 

“We are following the case of Ahmet Yıldız, who was murdered by his family.”

 

“We are also following the deep wounds that the dirty war in Kurdistan has created. We are the supporters of and the pursuers of justice for the Kurdish youngsters that were killed, the exiled LGBTI individuals, the destroyed villages, ruined natural habitats and the suffering of the Kurdish people in general.

 

 

“We are also watching intensely the case of Soma mine workers, who were sent to work in unsafe and primitive tunnels for next to nothing.

 

“Gay and trans murders are political. The violence directed at trans individual are just another face of the violence on gays, women, the disabled, HIV positive people, Kurds, Armenians, Alevis, Romani, socialists, workers, laborers, refugees as well as nature.

  

 

“We shout now with this information in mind. We will struggle until we poke a hole in your stinking establishment. We will resist with trans pride on the streets, in the parks, in front of the barricades and in prisons.

 

Down with your moral hypocrisy!

 

In spite of hate, we lust for life!

 

We will knock down this transphobic state!”

 

Translation: LGBTI News Turkey