01/06/2023 | Writer: Selma Koçak
Kaos GL General Coordinator Umut Güner: Struggling against the government neither differs from, nor more difficult than the struggle against a classmate in primary school.
Kaos GL General Coordinator Umut Güner was a guest of the Gündem Özel (Agenda Special) broadcast on Artı TV screens. Güner responded Nalin Öztekin’s questions on live broadcast.
Güner evaluated the presidential election results and LGBTI+s who were targeted once again by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his victory speech made in İstanbul, right after the tentative results. Some highlights of Güner’s assessments are as follows:
“Erdoğan’s speech doesn’t drive us to despair by itself alone. The fact that those who are in the opposition parties or who were candidates for the power don’t even say a single word, is a process that drives us to despair as much as Erdoğan. If Kılıçdaroğlu had been elected, we would have still been in the opposition and we could have continued to struggle against him.
Erdoğan and the ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party), degrade LGBTI+ existence into minority. They do the same not only against us. It goes for Kurds and Alevis as well. However we know that we are many people. LGBTI+ movement doesn’t only consist of self-organizations. LGBTI+ movement aims to organize the future with the society itself. It is revealed that we are not the minority as people who believes in democracy and human rights and we are 50 percent of the society via the election results.
Election is not the only medium for social opposition. We will go on using all the other means. We will also plan how to make these means more functional in terms of LGBTI+s. We are discussing prejudices against LGBTI+s in detail with people from all segments of the society within the scope of our Anti-Homophobia Meetings for many years.
The government creates superstitions regarding LGBTI+s and we will continue to confute the government’s superstitions. They are distorting the facts as they always do. They threaten us with the family as is we are not descended from a family. When as, nowadays LGBTI+ families are organizing in Turkey.
We address all LGBTI+s living in Tukey whether they are from Turkey or they are immigrant: There are LGBTI+ organizations, women organizations, human rights organizations, social service experts and trainers all over Turkey.
We had to begin struggling from the moment we were born. Struggling against the government neither differs from, nor more difficult than the struggle against a classmate in primary school. Moreover homophobic and transphobic people are not creative enough. Discrimination doesn’t require intelligence. An average level of intelligence is enough to overcome it.
We have a slogan we came up with when our pride marches were banned: Our every march is a pride march. Each march of a lesbian, a gay, a bisexual, a transgender and an intersex leaving their home and going to grocery, restaurant, work and etc, is a pride march and it is our march. People no longer believe the government’s lies targeting LGBTI+s.”
Tags: human rights, media
