Standing With LGBTQ+ People Through the Turkey LGBTQ Crackdown
Since September 13, Turkish authorities have raided LGBTQ+ association offices, bars, and homes across four cities—Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, and Mersin—in a coordinated operation the government named "My Family is Safe." The Turkey LGBTQ crackdown, as it's now being called by outlets covering it, has led prosecutors to investigate 162 people, nine associations, and 13 businesses. Kaos GL, one of Turkey's oldest LGBTQ+ rights organizations, says nearly 50 of its people are now in custody or facing legal proceedings after their offices were searched. Within days, courts had jailed 31 people pending trial, and over a hundred more were detained simply for showing up outside a courthouse to protest.
Why This Turkey LGBTQ Crackdown Looks Different
Turkey has banned Pride marches since 2015, and police have broken up protests for years. What makes this Turkey LGBTQ crackdown different is what it's actually targeting—not a march for one day, but the offices, legal aid, and health resources LGBTQ+ people rely on the other 364 days of the year.
We know what it's like to have a platform decide your existence is a problem to solve. It's a small, almost embarrassing thing to mention next to what's happening in Turkey right now—but a few weeks ago, Instagram permanently banned our own account for using the word "lesbian," with no real explanation given. What we felt for a few days, the people living through this crackdown are facing at a scale we can barely imagine.
Kaos GL and everyone else currently facing raids, arrests, and a government that's called them "deviant" on the record, we stand in solidarity!
If you want to follow the Turkey LGBTQ crackdown directly from people closer to it than we are, Kaos GL's own reporting is a better place to start.
The world is watching. We stand with Kaos GL. We stand with the LGBTIQ+ community in Türkiye.
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