Lambdaistanbul LGBT Solidarity Association

Lambdaistanbul is an organization that was formed by a group of gays and lesbians, right after the governor of Istanbul banned the Christopher Street Day Sexual Liberation Activities that were attempted to be held in July 1993. After this, the LGBT group that used to gather under the name "Gokkusagi" (Rainbow) took the name Lambdaistanbul.

Lambdaistanbul is an organization run by volunteers only. Our main goal is a society free from all kinds of discrimination, while our main focus is heterosexism. We are organized in a horizontal, non-hierarchical manner, so we don't have a chairperson, or any hierarchical structure, but we do have commissions formed by volunteers for various issues (LGBT human rights watch, activities, media, international relations, helpline, etc.)

We have been arranging regular Sunday meetings for LGBT people who need to find each other to share their experiences, and to realize that they are not alone. For this reason, we have also prepared a radio show that lasted for a year and a half on a prestigious local station of Istanbul, Acik Radio (http://www.acikradyo.com.tr/).

Since May 2002, we have a permanent office / cultural center that is open daily from 3 pm till 8 pm. We hold many activities there, such as discussions on various issues ("Why are LGBT people against all wars?", "What is Queer Theory?", etc.), LGBT themed film screenings, solidarity lunches to provide LGBT people with the opportunity to talk to each other in a relaxed atmosphere, where your conversation is not interrupted by loud music, dark, smoky environment (as it would be in a gay bar) and share the food we cook at home. We also have a library which contains books on LGBT issues (mostly in Turkish).

Each year, at the end of June, we organize pride activities to re-think Stonewall and to celebrate the fact that we are not ashamed of being who we are. During these activities, we have panels, discussions and presentations (history of the Turkish LGBT movement, LGBT movement in the world, etc.), films ("Stonewall", "Documentary on Harvey Milk", "Documentary on Aversion Therapies", etc.), concerts, parties, dinners, etc.

We have been organizing pride marches every year since 2003. We march a busy pedestrian street in the center of the city and we end the march with a press statement. Since 2005, we have been giving out “Genetically Modified Tomato Awards” to public figures who have made public homophobic statements during the year. Of course they never show up to get their award, but it still gets a wide media coverage. 2007 pride week was the first international one and was a great success. There were many participants from many different countries. Vladimir Luxuria, a transgender member of the Italian Parliament, was with us. The 2007 march had 1500 people, including a candidate for the Turkish parliament in the then-upcoming general elections.

Lambdaistanbul LGBT helpline has been active since July 2004. It is open daily for two hours and people from all over Turkey reach us with questions on homosexuality and transsexuality, sex, legal matters, military service, etc.

We have organized two symposiums on LGBT issues, together with Istanbul Bilgi University in 2003 and 2004.

Lambdaistanbul has always tried to link street activism with lobbying activities. We participated in several demonstrations which contributed to the LGBT visibility in the country in a significant manner. Together with Kaos GL (Ankara), the other main LGBT group in Turkey, we have worked out our demands on twelve articles of the new Penal Code and presented our suggestions to a member of the Commission of Justice of the Parliament in Ankara, which we also declared through a press conference, broadcasted in various Turkish television channels.

Lambdaistanbul is a full member of ILGA (International Lesbian and Gay Association). We open stands during various fairs and festivals like Human Rights Fair, Alternative Music Festival, festivals at universities, H2000 Music Festival and give also speeches on heterosexism at universities, conferences and symposiums.

In cooperation with various disciplines in academia we have accomplished a very detailed survey that has been applied to 400 people and which gave us in-depth information on the problems and the situation of the LGB people in Turkey. The results of this survey have been published by Lambdaistanbul and the English summary of this survey results can be found at Lambdaistanbul website:

http://www.lambdaistanbul.org/php/main.php?menuID=26&altMenuID=47&icerikID=362

Lambdaistanbul and other LGBT organizations in Turkey have formed an LGBT human rights watch committee in late 2006 and have been reporting LGBT human rights violations since then. This committee has published their first annual report of 2007 recently as a book and has sent it to all 550 members of the Turkish parliament. This committee has also been working on a campaign to have “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” added to the equality article in the new constitution that is under way.

Lambdaistanbul registered as an association in the summer of 2006 and in 2007, the Istanbul City Government has made a complaint and had a court case opened for Lambdaistanbul to be shut down. The case is still going on and we have been campaigning about this issue as well.