Some good news…

In Turkey, the decision to close the Lambdaistanbul association was overturned. Copy/paste from their site:

The Decision to Close Down Lambdaistanbul was Overturned !

27/11/2008
72 kere okundu

Our process towards becoming an official association that started in May 2006 was carried to the court due to Istanbul Governor’s Office’s decision that our name and our constitution is against the law, morality and Turkish family values. We survived six hearings, and Istanbul 3^rd Principle Court has decided to close us down despite the expert opinion supporting us. Today, our case was heard at the Supreme Court of Appeals. As witnesses to a late-arriving justice we shout out that our organizing is not immoral.

True, justice arrived quite late. A similar criminal complaint was filed against our sibling associations in Ankara, Kaos GL and Pembe Hayat (Pink Life), by Ankara Governor’s Office, claiming that they were against the law, morality and Turkish family values. However, things worked out differently in their case, and the local courts and prosecution office decided not to close down these associations -a decision that is opposed to the decision made by Istanbul 3^rd Principle Court. How come there are two opposing verdicts based on the same law?

We repeat: Decisions influenced by prejudices will remain inevitable, and inequality, discrimination and intense human rights violations will prevail as long as “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” are not added to the equality clause of the constitution.

Yet finally, justice has arrived. We are stronger now with the overturn of the decision to close down Lambdaistanbul LGBTT Solidarity Association. As people who face violence, who get expelled from our jobs, who are excluded and isolated, who are denied their legal rights, our voices will now multiply; and as the LGBTT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transvestite, transsexual) movement we will be louder when we shout out our right to equality.

The Platform for LGBTT Rights

Izmir Transvestite and Transsexual Initiative

Kaos GL Association

Kaos GL izmir Formation

Lambdaistanbul LGBTT Solidarity Association

MorEL eskisehir LGBTT Formation

Pembe Hayat LGBTT Solidarity Association

Piramid LGBTT Diyarbakir Formation

A transgender woman murdered in Turkey

This is just a copy/paste of a news I just received through Lambdaistanbul (see here for the english version of their website), association. a turkish LGBTT association

Another transgender friend was murdered!

Press Release by KAOS GL – 11/11/2008

Baris Sulu – Ankara

Translated into English by Sedef Cakmak

Edited in English by Oner Ceylan

As we were getting ready for the “November 20th, Remembrance Day for Transgender victims of hate murders” we were devastated by a news we received. On November 10, 2008, around 9 pm in Etlik, a district of Ankara, our friend Dilek was attacked with a pump action shotgun, and passed away at the Ankara Diskapi Education and Research Hospital at around 0:30 am on November 11, 2008.

According to an eye-witness; while they were in the car with Dilek in the Etlik-Iskitler district, they were startled by a shot and the sound of a shattered window coming from the back of the car. A few minutes later, another fire was opened from the side of the car aiming Dilek’s head, who was sitting in the driver’s seat. When she was taken to a hospital where she was taken into intensive care. Eight shots were found in her head. This verifies that the assault might have been done with a shotgun. It was told that the assaulters ran away with a dark colored car and they were more than 2 people.

Dilek was one of the transsexuals who had filed complaints against the attackers in the Eryaman incidents. During the trial, she had also sat at the witness chair and testified against the assaulters. The suspects of the Eryaman incidents were released during the hearing on October 17, 2008.

Condolences to all of us…

And another press release, from LGBT Rights Platform, which was delivered during a protest, on the 12th of November :

Gay and transsexual murders are political – We now the killers!

LGBT Rights Platform
15/11/2008
26 kere okundu

On November 12, 2008, after the funeral service of Dilek, LGBT Rights Platform has delivered a press release followed by a protest march in Ankara. You may find the press release below.

LGBT Rights Platform – Press Release

12 November 2008, Ankara

We are in sorrow and anger.

We are in deep sadness, because one of our friends has been a victim of the heterosexist hate and murdered once again.

Transsexual Dilek İnce, who has been attacked with a shotgun on 10 November 2008, died on 11 November 2008.

We are in anger, because we came here from a cemetery. We are in great anger because we cannot know which gay or transsexual friend of ours is the next.

Who killed transsexual Dilek İnce in a shotgun attack? And will the murderers be found?

Who killed gay individual Ahmet Yıldız with a machine gun? And why could İstanbul Police Department not find the attackers?

Who forced Ege Tanyürek, a young gay person, to commit suicide in Adıyaman?

We are in fear and fright!

We would like to know if gay and transsexuals are not citizens according to Mr. Prime Minister?

Isn’t it a crime to discriminate citizens?

We want to know

If the police will find the murderers?

If prosecutors and judges will give up freeing the killers under grievous provocation.

We are in fear and freight because we do not know how many other gays and transsexuals will be killed by the Prime Minister’s citizens who “got out of patience.”

We want to know if Mr. Prime Minister will create a just and peaceful society by consternating and disquieting.

We will not change, you will get used to it!

We knocked your doors, we screamed, we wore shrouds, do you think we are playing a game?

We are being killed just because we are gay or transsexual. We are looking for justice and we cannot find it.

What we want is not too much; it is only not to be killed because of our sexual orientation and gender identities.

How long will you watch us being killed by empowering homophobic and transphobic hate?

Hitler sealed us with pink triangles and killed us in holocaust, but could not destroy us. You, the watchers! Do you think that you will be able to destroy gays and transsexuals through hunting one by one?

We announce it!

Gay and transsexual murders are political – We now the killers!

We will not let it go!

Shame on your morality soiled with gay and transsexual blood!

I see no comment to add to this sad news, but even if it isn’t directly linked, I think it is important to remind that the association Lambdaistanbul is facing dissolution and that the final appeal of the case will be held in Turkish supreme court on november 25th. A petition to protest the dissolution decision can be signed here. I don’t know much of the turkish situation but I think it is currently difficult for LGBT people and there was much violence directed to trans peole, so it would be really dramatical if the sentence was to be confirmed, shutting down an association defending LGBT people.