07/05/2025 | Writer: Kaos GL
The 2024 reports of Kaos GL Association’s annual research have been published. According to the findings, anti-LGBTİ+ rhetoric has negatively affected LGBTİ+ employees, and economic uncertainty has deepened further for LGBTİ+ individuals.
The 2024 results of Kaos GL Association’s employment research—conducted to understand the situation of LGBTİ+ employees in Turkey’s public and private sectors and to ensure their full, equal, and free participation in the labor force—have been published.
The research, prepared by Prof. Dr. Mary Lou O’Neil, Dr. Reyda Ergün, Dr. Selma Değirmenci, Dr. Kıvılcım Turanlı, Doğancan Erkengel, and Öykü Deniz Aytemiz, and edited by Murat Köylü and Defne Güzel, included a total of 209 participants working in both public and private sectors.
Report on the Status of LGBTİ+ Employees in the Public Sector 2024
Report on the Status of LGBTİ+ Employees in the Private Sector 2024
According to the 2024 Research on the Status of LGBTİ+ Public Employees in Turkey, only 2.8% of participants stated that they openly disclosed their gender identity or sexual orientation at their workplace. In the simultaneously conducted private sector research, this rate was 22.5%.
The report evaluated this finding as follows:
“The significantly lower rate of openness regarding gender identity, sexual orientation, and sex characteristics in the public sector compared to the private sector each year suggests that the risk of encountering discrimination and hate speech is much higher for LGBTİ+ employees in the public sector.”
LGBTİ+ individuals continue to follow a strategy of concealment in the public sector
According to the report, 29.6% of participants stated that they witnessed discriminatory attitudes or practices against other LGBTİ+ employees in their workplace, and 59.2% reported encountering hate speech against LGBTİ+ individuals. In the private sector research, this rate was 30.4%.The report included the following assessment:
“LGBTİ+ employees adopt a compulsory strategy of concealment to mitigate the risk of not being hired. Since the risk of discrimination continues even after employment begins, this strategy shapes the entire professional lives of LGBTİ+ employees. Concealment becomes even more obligatory in the public sector compared to the private sector.”
Anti-LGBTİ+ discourse negatively affected LGBTİ+ public employees
According to the report, in 2024, no public sector employee fully disclosed their gender identity or sexual orientation during the recruitment process. Among those who reported being partially open during recruitment, 60% stated they faced discriminatory attitudes or practices. Similarly, 43.8% of those who were fully or partially open at the workplace reported experiencing discrimination.The report noted:
“This year’s findings reinforce our concern that working openly as an LGBTİ+ person in the public sector is becoming increasingly impossible due to anti-LGBTİ+ rhetoric by government officials. The risk of facing discrimination at the workplace is rising even further for employees who are fully or partially open.”
Amid growing economic uncertainty, discriminated LGBTİ+ employees did not report their experiences
The report also revealed that LGBTİ+ individuals who experienced discrimination in the public sector in 2024 did not turn to any complaint mechanisms, either out of fear of losing their jobs or a belief that no effective outcome would be achieved.Economic instability in Turkey was also a significant theme in the report. 23.9% of respondents stated that they feared losing their jobs due to economic uncertainty.
One in three LGBTİ+ individuals in the private sector faced discrimination
According to the 2024 Report on the Status of LGBTİ+ Employees in the Private Sector in Turkey, only 2.2% of LGBTİ+ participants reported experiencing discriminatory attitudes, discourse, behavior, or practices during recruitment. Meanwhile, 44.2% stated they did not encounter any discrimination during the hiring process; 53.6% attributed this to concealing their gender identity, sexual orientation, or sex characteristics—or to these aspects being non-visible.Only 18.4% of participants reported that their workplace had effective rules or bodies to prevent discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation, or sex characteristics. In workplaces where such mechanisms existed and were implemented effectively, the rate of being fully open among LGBTİ+ employees rose to 43.2%.
According to the report, one in three LGBTİ+ employees in the private sector experienced discrimination based on their gender identity or sexual orientation. As in the public sector, those who experienced discrimination in the private sector did not report these incidents to their unions or professional organizations.
Tags: human rights, labour
