The Situation of Transvestite and Transsexual Women in Turkey

To have an idea about the situation of transvestite and transsexual women in Turkey, you can find an article by our member Demet Demir and two of the many press releases of Lambdaistanbul on the issue.

1) An article by Demet Demir (member of Lambdaistanbul and ÖDP (Freedom and Solidarity Party) and former candidate for Istanbul’s Beyoğlu District Council) that talks about the life and problems of the transgender community during the 90's. (Published in the June - July 2005 issue of the Lambdaistanbul Bulletin)

Stonewall* - Ülkerwall

Stonewall continues; with discrimination, violence and torture in its 36th anniversary... In the year of 2005 the fines and the sealing of the brothels still exist. There is still no chance to work in other jobs.

Transvestites and transsexuals are still suffering from this discrimination and violence. Ad
Lambdaistanbul, for over a year, we're making press releases, going to court and supporting the ones who are reclaiming their rights. The battle continues. I would like to take you back to past a little; in those times gender reassignments were forbidden. We weren’t given the pink identity cards, that is, the women’s identity. There was also constant oppression of the police, the haircut incidents and the exile to Eskişehir. We were beaten up. They made us wear baggy trousers and put a cat inside it; so that when they hit the cat, it was scratching our legs. These kinds of brutal practices increased during the period of "12th September" (the Coup d'Etat of 1980. The fascism was showing its face. Since 1985, we have been living a ghetto life in Cihangir in Pürletaş Street, Başkurt Street, Kazancı Street, Ülker Street and Kutlu Street. The police were making unexpected visits to these streets and making the place impossible for us to live. With the increase of the oppression of the police, the withstand started. Resistance and struggle became political for the first time in 1986. It followed in 1987, the hunger strike, the manifestation in Taksim Square and going to Ankara for another manifestation.

In the spring of 1988, four of our transvestite friends shut themselves in their house and broke the windows of a police car; after that they set their home on fire. Thus more than hundred
police, ambulance, firemen, special policemen with rifles and journalists were taken their place in the street. After a resistance which lasted for 5 hours, our friends surrendered, then they were sent to jail. Before the court, it was estimated that their sentence could be 2 to 4 years; however with a good defence in the court, they were only sentenced to 2 months. In 1989, our 16 year old friend Avşar committed suicide and died because of the depression she had as a result of the oppression of the police.

At the beginning of the 90's, the ones being arrested were brought to the Forest of Belgrat where all of their belongings and clothes were taken out and left alone naked during the winter time. In order to go back to Istanbul from there, many of our friends were forced to hitch-hike to truck drivers, thus forced to deal with the sexual abuse of those drivers. There had been even worse tortures that a few of our friends who were taken to the Forest of Belgrat have faced: They said; "You have to sit on the stake like you let the men's penis get in your ass". Our friends tried to resist but it was hard when there was a rifle pointed at your head. Our friends, who were in a great shock at that time, ran naked in the forest and disappear behind the trees.

From the beginning of 1990, until the end of 1991, a new police team called "tahtacılar" was formed. After 9 pm, they were starting their operation. They walked through the crowded streets and back alleys of Beyoğlu in order to beat up whomever they run into. Another team was doing the same operation in Laleli. Chief Doğan Karayılan was performing unthinkable tortures: He was forcing the arrested transvestites and transsexuals to pray and keeping them from going to bathroom for hours. Arrestment went on like this for days. In the meantime he swore to the transvestites whose facial hair was growing by saying: "Do you look like a woman in this condition?" One arrestment could last from one week to ten days. While we were going to market, or returning back from shopping, we were getting arrested. They constantly broke into our houses and even sometimes more than once in the same day. Most of our friends were sent to jail for the reason of resisting to policemen.

In 1991, we were thrown out of our neighbourhood. The ones owning a house sold their house and went away. More than hundred transvestites and transsexuals were living in these five streets. This place was our little empire; we even had a name for it: "Lubunistan" (Queerland). Than a little group of transvestites and transsexuals started to live in Ülker Street, after sometime the number of the people living there increased to 70. However our dream life didn't last long; after five or six years, violations started.

The last standing group of Pürtelaş Street was driven away by Süleyman the Hose (Süleyman Ulusoy, chief policeman). Ülker Street was also dispersed by him. At 21 May 1996, breaking into houses had started. Policemen were breaking down our front doors and were attacking us. Police and the former mayor Nusret Bayraktar threatened the places where we shop; and shut down the ones who kept on doing business with us. People living in the neighbourhood were also supporting them; they were breaking our windows, threatening to kill us. All of our friends abandoned their houses. With difficulty, I have persuaded a few people to stay at my house to keep on resisting. For a year, during the nights we sat without turning the lights on or watching TV. Because if police found out that we were at home, they broke into house. We starved; for 4 months we tried to survive by eating pasta, soup and eggs. Süleyman the Hose was coming to my door; shouting and yelling. He was provoking the people living in the neighbourhood by saying "Kill that fag Demet by beating her with an iron bar" and than he was swearing at me: "Stick up an iron bar in the fag's ass". He claims that he's the defender of human rights; he was all the time lying during the press councils. When he breaks into my house, first thing he does is to cut my phone cables so that I won't be able to call my lawyer or the media.

In those times our friends who were thrown out of Cihangir and Ülker Street were forced to work on the E–5 highway. In 5 years’ time, more than forty transvestite and transsexual friends were overrun by a car while they were running away from the police and some of them were stabbed or shot by homophobic people. We were like a piece of rock in Cihangir; but with the strike of a hammer, we turned into grains of sand, and eventually we spread away.

These oppressions in Ülker Street lasted for two years. We resisted and didn't go away. I'm still living in Ülker Street. I keep on having the "Stonewall" despite our enemies in the neighbourhood.

There is still left too many things to talk about; these pages will not be enough to tell everything. There are the memories of many people. We were the most complicated generation. For years we suffered from heterosexism, homophobia, and patriarchy. Most of our friends lost their jobs because of their sexual orientation. We definitely need Stonewall in towns, villages and in all countries. There's pain and discrimination everywhere, all the time. In order to prevent them we need a constant struggle and activism.

Demet Demir / June 2005

*Stonewall: Riot started by a group of transgenders, gay men, lesbians and bisexuals against the police in 1969 in a bar in Manhattan, New York, called Stonewall, after years of discrimination and violence.

2) Press release sent by Lambdaistanbul on 15.07.2004 via e-mail

Another murder of a transvestite!

At 15.07.2004 at 2 am in Cevizlibağ, one of our transgendered friends was overrun by a car while she was running away from the police. She couldn't be identified because of the fact that her face was deformed during the accident. Despite the objection of her friends, her body was sent to morgue without waiting for the attorney, using the excuse that it blocks the traffic circuit. Generally even for a little scratch in the car, the traffic is hindered until the authorities come. This made us realise that the life of a transgendered person is less valuable than a scratch of a car. Therefore another death of a transgender is concealed; and the car which made the accident has disappeared.

Today almost all of the transvestites and transsexuals are forced to survive by sex labour because of the reason that they don't have the chance of working in any other job. While some of them working at home and the others in the highways, they are facing the hard and dangerous aspects of working in sex labour. Since they neither have the support of an institution nor the support of their families, they became an open target, a "prey" for the people who hate transvestites and transsexuals. We keep on hearing the death and injury news of our friends who were hit by the cars intentionally.

The murder of transvestite and transsexual women is political!

3) Press statement read during the street demonstration of Lambdaistanbul on Galatasaray Square on 11.05.2005

Hurray! LGBT’s are being taken into custody!

In some of the newspapers of 10.05.2005, the headlines like "SCANDAL", "IMMORALITY" that were actually targeting all LGBT people under the name of transvestites, achieved their goal.

Last night, over a hundred transvestites and transsexuals and over ten gay men were arrested by the authorities in the districts that were mentioned in the newspapers. By the order of the governor, the policemen were hunting down transvestites and transsexuals even in places like cafes, supermarkets and hairdressers. On Cumhuriyet Street in Harbiye district, they arrested all queer people without making a distinction between gays and transvestites. The only difference these citizens have from other people is being queer; however they were blamed for "acting against morality", "public exposure" and "prostitution" and sent to judicial hospital for further examination. They weren't allowed to call their lawyer, even though they’ve demanded this and this is their legal right according to the current law, and they were forced to sign some papers.

Thus the news articles that were making non-scientific statements about the transvestites and transsexuals like "people, the majority of which prefer to disguise as women and do prostitution because of moral degeneration", have reached their goal. In a delicate subject like this, we were expecting the media to handle the situation in a more solution-seeking way. That's why we criticize the mentality of the media that provokes violence within the society, with a manner, far from social responsibility. As we all know, violence creates violence. If we desire a life without violence, the solution is not to condemn the very ones which are subject to violence. We believe that we can build social peace only if we stand side by side with all our differences, our diversity. For that reason, we are asking our media to publish news with a more conscious approach.

Transvestite and Transsexual Women of Istanbul

Lambdaistanbul LGBT Initiative