26/01/2023 | Writer: Selma Koçak

TTB Women Medical Doctors and Women Health: We reject and condemn the unscientific opinions of a single physician!

“We disapprove of discussing sexual identities over Constitutional amendment!” Kaos GL - News Portal for LGBTI+

Turkish Medical Association (TTB) Women Medical Doctors and Women Health Branch released a statement regarding the discrimination against LGBTI+s at Constitutional Committee.

TTB criticized the invitation of a urologist in order to speak about LGBTI+s within the scope of the Committee regarding the constitutional amendment proposal prepared by People’s Alliance, which aims to redefine marriage and target LGBTI+s and said:

“We disapprove of discussing sexual identities over constitutional amendment! While there are competent and independent professional organizations that are up to expressing an opinion to legitimize it, we reject and condemn ideological and unscientific opinions of a single physician!”

What had happened?

Sexual orientation and gender identity titles were discussed at the Parliamentary Constitution Committee yesterday, within the scope of the constitutional proposal regarding “the constitutional guarantee for headscarf and redefinition of the family” which was brought to the Parliament on December 9, 2022 by Justice and Development Party (AKP), Nationalist Movement Part (MHP) and Great Unity Party (BBP).

At the committee, the discussion began with Nationalist Movement Party İstanbul MP Feti Yıldız’s statements: “The lobbies of LGBT – we cannot even pronounce its’ name – of this perverted trend are supported financially, in one way or another, in order to create a great conception.”

Urologist Prof. Dr. Zeki Bayraktar, who is famous for his ideological and discriminatory speeches  against LGBTI+s, was assigned to the Committee as an expert in order to present an opinion about the issue.

Bayraktar attributed homosexual and transgender existence to “faulty parental attitudes in early childhood” within the scope of his claims which are deprived of scientific validity: “If we are not able to manage it correctly with rational methods and without panic, unfortunately, we may face a booming in homosexual and transgender cases in the coming years.”

Bayraktar justified the proposal, which aims to redefine the family with a discriminatory motive in the Constitution, by “the responsibility of the state to protect mental and physical health of the citizens” claiming that “the average life cycle of LGBTI+s is sixteen to twenty years shorter”. Bayraktar said ”Psychiatrists don’t know this” regarding his claims.

Bayraktar’s nonscientific claims didn’t grind on; he associated the psychological oppression created by social discrimination and heteronormative and binary social order on LGBTI+s with being “homosexual and transgender”. He attributed sexually transmissible diseases, which go for everyone, to being LGBTI+.


Tags: human rights
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