17/06/2015 | Writer: Kaos GL
Istanbul LGBTI activists said ‘We need a law against hate and violence’.
6th Trans Pride Week, to end with a March in Taksim on June, 21, started with a press conference on 15th June. Istanbul LGBTI activists said “We need a law against hate and violence”.
6th Trans Pride Week organized by Istanbul LGBTI Solidarity Association has started with a press conference held at the Human Rights Association.
This year’s theme was announced as “We Need a Law!” at the press conference with the participation of trans women residing at the Trans Guesthouse and Istanbul LGBTI activists. Ebru Kırancı and Kıvılcım Arat from the Association invited people to the March on June, 21.
Ebru Kırancı emphasizing that hate crimes against trans people has increased in recent years, said “unjust provocation” sentence reduction in “Turk Criminal Code” prevents criminals from receiving adequate punishment even if they get caught and it turns into a practice from which the offenders can benefit.
“Impunity is an invitation to crime”
By criticizing the absence of objective and adequate investigation Kırancı continued that: “the absence of objective and adequate investigation into all hate attacks and murders deprives trans people of the most basic human rights. The state must guarantee the right to life of the trans community.”
“The state must guarantee the right to life as the most basic human rights”
“Trans community’s situation in public life is determined by the society and the state. Social prejudice and trans individuals’, especially trans women’s, inability to access to their rights are intersected with each other. Increase in hate crimes is a result of this kind of state politics and social value system. These crimes do not only target individuals but also the groups those individuals belong to. Insufficiency of investigations and punishments shows that trans community can’t even reach their right to live.”
“We need a law not the Internal Security Package”
Inviting people to “LGBTI and the Internal Security Package” panel to be taken place on June, 19 Kırancı said that “The new Internal Security Package will affect directly trans women being obliged to work as sex workers. We think that the package leads to increase in hate crimes and state violence will target trans women more systematically. For that reason, we say ‘we need a law’ but this law is definitely not the Internal Security Package”.
“Remain silent means being part of the crime”
Reminding that the terms “sexual orientation’’ and “gender identity’’ were removed from the Equality clause of the New Constitution draft, Kıvılcım Arat said that “we are inviting all individuals and organizations who are against transphobia to stay shoulder by shoulder with us.”
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Arat also mentioned another highly important panel focusing on the problems of refugee trans people. Arat briefly explained that the aim of the panel id to discuss double challenges and discriminatory practices trans refugees face.
Lastly, Arat thanked ASAM, KAOS GL, Pink Life, Mersin 7 Color, Turkey Psychiatry Association and Think Civil and also Democratic Women’s Movement, Europe Democratic Women’s Movement and Democratic Rights Federation for their support.
Translated by Simge Şirin
Tags: life
