LGBTQ history in Turkey covers the development, contributions and struggles of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the history of Turkey and their relation between Turkish politics from the abolition of the Caliphate to modern-day Turkey.
Before the Republic of Turkey
The Ottomans, before the 19th-century, did not base sexual identities on attraction to a specific gender but distinguished between active and passive partners, often distinguished as "the lover" and "the beloved". Therefore, choice of a partner was merely based on taste and not on sexual identity. This made certain types of same-sex attraction permissible, but this attraction was most often legitimized in a pederastic context.
By the late 19th century, homosexual contact started to decline and the focus of desire turned to young girls. Ahmed Cevdet Pasha stated:Woman-lovers have increased in number, while boy-beloveds have decreased. It is as if the People of Lot have been swallowed by the earth. The love and affinity that were, in Istanbul, notoriously and customarily directed towards young men have now been redirected towards girls, in accordance with the state of nature.Research shows that the decline is in close relationship to the criminalization of homosexuality in the Western world, which followed repression of the queer community.
Republic of Turkey
Under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1923 and the foundation of the Turkish Republic, Turkey's first president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk introduced a number of reforms that impacted the view on gay relationships within the country. Atatürk's goal to modernize institutions and cultural traditions was heavily influenced by conservative Western ideals. Christian countries did not allow for non-heterosexual relationships and pressed their ideals on the rest of the world. Under the influence of European modernization, Turkey adapted more and more to European clothing styles and made the wearing of hats mandatory. Refusal to wear these in public had legal consequences. Further behaviour such as open affection for the people of the same sex as well as "feminine" behaviour became stigmatized. This process of "Europeanization" led to a rapid increase of discrimination against the queer community.
1938–1980
After Atatürk, the Turkish government persisted in the process of Europeanization of the country, and until the 1960s homosexuality was not publicly discussed. The queer community had the liberty to participate in all sorts of entertainment and activities. The situation changed with the election of the Republican People's Party (CHP) in 1974, in coalition with the National Salvation Party (MSP). The MSP controlled the Interior Ministry, making queer people the target of repressive policies. The attacks against the community became more frequent and violent. The members of the LGBT+ community kept on fighting for their rights and, to protect themselves, attempted to create their own political identity. Multiple cities became centers of queer resistance such as Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara. With the military coup d'état on September 12, 1980, their effort came to an end.
1980s
With the establishment of the military regime, political parties were banned and the freedom of demonstration, association, speech, and the press were censored. The authorities initiated a campaign of mass persecution against the members of the community and trans sex workers were "deported" from the city centers to the outskirts of the city, and arrested from their places of work or in their apartments. The arrested were imprisoned with the political prisoners and had to face psychological and physical torture. In the 1980s, the Radical Democratic Green Party openly declared to be against police brutality and expressed their support in favor of gay rights and the transgender community assaulted by the authorities.
The first legal ban occurred on March 19, 1981, when the Interior Ministry prohibited drag queens from performing on nightclub stages. Bülent Ersoy attempted to circumvent the ban by undergoing sex reassignment surgery in London. The goal was to be legally recognized as a woman and not as a transvestite, however the Turkish government refused to recognize the transition and kept treating her as a "man in drag". On June 13, 1981, the Istanbul governor stopped Ersoy from performing, because she was wearing a woman's outfit and, according to the law, she was a man. Ersoy's ban was lifted on January 7, 1988, under Turgut Özal's government. In the same year, the Article 29 of the Turkish Civil Code was modified, allowing transgender people to change their gender in the civil status register after gender confirmation surgery.
Ersoy was not the only one fighting for her rights. As a response to the situation they were living in, the entire trans community started organizing protests in Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara with the support of feminist and human rights organizations and influenced by the Stonewall riots. In Ankara, the first queer organization was founded, but failed, while in Izmir, Ibrahim Eren opted to organize individual and group discussion in his house.
In 1987, the members of the LGBTQ+ community attempted to form a political party, the Radical Democratic Green Party, which brought homosexuality under the spotlight. This led to public discussions and engagement with it, and the other political parties were forced to clarify their positions in relation to homosexuality. Out of all the parties, only the Social Democratic Populist Party did not explicitly express themselves, however they weren't supportive of a law specifically written to protect the LGBTQ+ community.
Because of the increasing violent actions from the police, on April 29, 1987, trans people, lesbians, and gay men initiated a ten-day hunger strike in Gezi Park by Taksim Square. The strike started in a house in Taksim and was moved to Gezi Park the next day until it was dispersed by the police. However, the protest continued in different houses for weeks, and managed to get support from the Radical Democratic Green Party and some famous artists and intellectuals. This hunger strike is considered to be the first large-scale LGBTQ+ protest before the 1990s, and a turning point in the contemporary queer movement.
Some openly gay people were able to be successful in the 1980s. Murathan Mungan has been openly gay throughout his professional life as a successful poet and writer. However, many gay and bisexual men who lived during this period have since said in interviews that they felt pressured, by social attitudes and government policy, to remain in the closet about their sexual identity.
1990s
The 1990s were characterized by efforts on specific topics that would condition the political agenda of the queer movement. With the support of European queer organizations, queer activists were able to found and organize the first lasting associations. In 1993, supported by the collaboration with the German initiative Schwule International, the Turkish queer activist organized their first Pride. The governor of Istanbul banned the event, but in doing so the discrimination that the LGBTQ+ community faces in Turkey was brought in their annual progress report written by the Commission for Human Rights of the European Parliament. Following the ban, queer activist founded LambdaIstanbul, and in 1994 it became part of the International Lesbian and Gay Association. At the same time, in Ankara KaosGL was founded and, together with LambdaIstanbul, they got support from Turkish non-governmental organizations.
During the second half of the 1990s, the members of the LGBTQ+ community started differentiating among themselves, to feel adequately represented within the community. New separated associations were founded, such as LEGATO. However, they kept organizing joint actions, and from 1998 until 2004, they organized celebrations twice a year both in Istanbul and Ankara.
In 1996, since the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements was taking place in Istanbul, the authorities carried out "cleansing operations" in central parts of Istanbul to free the streets from trans and other sex workers, street vendors, homeless people and drug users. The aim was to present Istanbul as a city inhabited by middle-class Turkish citizens. Despite the numerous protests, the police violence did not stop, but they managed to draw attention to the affected communities.
The following year, in 1997, Lambda became the first Turkish LGBTQ+ NGO to be invited by the government to a government conference, namely the National Congress on AIDS. The same year, Hamam, a Turkish film featuring a gay romance, was released internationally and broadcast on state television.
In 1999, the Left Party banned discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity within their party. Demet Demir became the first transgender candidate to run for political office in Turkish history.
2000s
Following Turkey's recognition as a candidate for joining the European Union, Ankara passed a series of "harmonization packages" to meet international expectations of improving the conditions for minorities and for civil society in general.Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Secre- tariat General for EU Affairs, "Political Reforms in Turkey", 2007, https://www.ab.gov.tr/files/pub/prt.pdf (last viewed on December 29, 2015). The changes proposed had an immediate and positive effect on the queer movement: it grew considerably, gained more visibility, and it established solidarity with other social movements.
In 2002, the parliamentary elections saw the Justice and Development Party (AKP) taking power for the first time. They declared their desire to guarantee the rights to all the population, including the members of the LGBTQ+ community. The same year, the Turkish Civil Code changed its regulations regarding sex change: to transition, the court's permission was needed. In order to do so, the applicant had to provide a report from a hospital stating the "transsexual nature", pathologizing transsexuality. Moreover, the sex reassignment surgery could only happen after the mandatory sterilization of the applicant.
The following year, in 2003, Istanbul hosted the first pride and, in 2004, the Turkish Parliament approved a new Law on Associations. Compared to the 1983 Associations Law, all associations could be created with less bureaucracy and were less controlled by the government. Between 2005 and 2006, KaosGL and LamdaIstanbul were officially recognized. However, despite the increasing recognition of the LGBTQ+ community, in 2006 AKP took legal action against LambdaIstanbul: according to the governor of Istanbul, the association was violating the Law on Associations and public morals, making it a threat to Turkish family structures. Eventually, the judgment was reversed in favor of the association.
In December 2006, Bigudi Club was established in Istanbul as the first lesbian-exclusive nightclub in the country.
After 2007, conflict between the AKP and queers became more frequent and heated. To respond to the impact of the AKP's discriminatory policies, several queer associations created a coalition under the name Platform for LGBTI Rights (LGBTT Hakları Platformu). In 2008, they demanded the addition of "sexual orientation and sexual identity" to Article 10 of the Turkish Constitution, which stipulates that "everyone is equal before the law".
In 2008, Ahmet Yildiz was killed by his father in Istanbul. His murder has been called the first gay honor killing in Turkey, and his body remained unclaimed by his family. The same year, Ankara hosted the first pride.