Ankara: The 5th of Meeting Against Homophobia Has Been Completed

The 5th of Meeting Against Homophobia has been completed in Ankara with the conference of Judith Butler, with the headline "The fellowship of Queer and Anti-war Politics".

This year Meeting Against Homophobia which is coordinated by Kaos GL every year has been hosted by the LGBT organizations and anti-homophobics in Ankara, Trabzon, Samsun, Adana, Mersin, Kayseri, Edirne, Aydın, Diyarbakır, Van, Antalya, Eskişehir, İzmir and İstanbul.

Right after the meeting, LGBT individuals and people who are against homophobia and transphobia marched against homophobia. This year, before the planned marching , 300 people, more or less, who attended to Judith Butler's conference marched from Cebeci Campus to city centrum shouting slogans. -- Why Meeting ? -- The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the discrimination directed to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans individuals and to make them more visible. Many thoughts that will free both LGBT individuals and heterosexuals were shared and discussed.

With the help of meetings against homophobia, the projects aimed at LGBT individuals' freedom of speech and organization rights and to protect them from any means of discrimination has been spread.

Since 2006...

The meeting against homophobia was held for the first time on May 2006. The meeting with the result of the very wide web made against discrimination last year it got beyond its limits and spread to 5 other cities.

Kaos GL which organizes this meeting has been organizing many social , cultural and academic events against discrimination since the beginning of 1990.

In 2005, with the name "Kaos Gay-Lesbian Cultural Research and Solidarity Association" he became a legal association and from then on continues its projects and fight.

Kaos GL supports the other LGBT individuals to form their own organizations in their own cities.

Kaos GL works to make the human rights of LGBT individuals visible. And for this, Kaos GL carries out many works in coordination with human rights organizations, woman organizations and many international organizations.

This year with the help of all these work and effort The Meeting Against Homophobia spread to 14 different cities !

Why and How does the meeting spread through cities?

Kaos GL who oriented "May 17" for Turkey via "Meeting Against Homophobia" program asks the question "Whose cause is Homophobia?" and tries to figure out the connections between different discriminations.

When Kaos GL focused on the connections between homophobia and sexism, racism, militarism and chauvinism, the question "whose matter is homophobia" was embraced by academics and some civil organizations. Hereby, may student and civil organizations who wanted to adapt the meeting against homophobia to their own dispute in their own cities and campuses has emerged. In this way, the cause of homophobia can be discussed in the cities and campuses where LGBT individuals are not visible yet.

Which subjects were discussed in the 5th meeting ?

Anti-homophobic Met in Trabzon: This year, in Back Seas Region, the meeting started in Trabzon. In the city which is being tried to be taken over by chauvinism, students of Karadeniz Technical University carried out the meeting against homophobia with a great responsibility and self-sacrifice. For the first time in LGBT history of Turkey, an activity in Blacksea region was made !

From Illness to Ideology and from Homophobia to Queer Theory – Anti-homophobia: Social psychologists and psychiatrists, philosophers and various academicians talked about homophobia through its being named and given a meaning.

Queer Forum With Judith Butler: What a great excitement and beauty! The theory of Judith Butler which has been shown as puzzling is just the same as Kaos GL's politic dispute's theoric and practical summary. Everybody, academicians and nonacademicians, people in the circle and out of the circle asked the same question: "Who could Kaos GL manage to convince Judith Butler to come?" and they wondered how much we paid… Actually i was piece of cake! We wrote an e-mail and told about the meeting against homophobia in that email and Butler came and honored our meeting. We didn't spend a dime, on contrary, she rejected her travelling expenses to be paid by Kaos GL, we only spent Money on her accommodation.

Meeting against Homophobia in Çukurova: Kaos GL, in Mediterranean Region of Turkey, supports organization movements of LGBT individuals under the name of Çukurova Gay & Lesbian Initiative. This year, fort he first time, in the biggest two universities of Çukurova , Adana and Mersin Universities, meeting events were held. For LGBT community in there is in the closet, yet, these events were made with the help of academicians and student organizations.

Forum Against Borders: The forum where the question "What does the doors closed by chauvinism hides? was discussed were attended by social psychologists, journalists, academicians and representatives from Armenian Community.

In Diyarbakır, Nationalism and Hatred Pandemic and Homophobia were discussed: Kaos GL has been supporting Kurdish LGBT individuals to create their own organization. Kurdish LGBT individuals who organized under the name of Hevjin LGBT Diyarbakır Oluşumu, published a magazine with the same name in Kurdish and Turkish. Kaos GL who carried The Meeting Against Homophobia from Van to Diyarbakır, the Kurdish region is trying to create the atmosphere where Kurdish LGBT individuals can be visible by trying to convince different civil public organizations to take the subject into their agenda.

Forum of Constitutional Law: LGBT and Woman Organizations are trying to add the definitions "sexual orientation and sexual identity" to the article which regulate equality. To the forum which was moderated by Ayhan Bilgen, Human Rights Activist and Publishing Manager of Günlük Gazette, Reporter of Constitutional Court Osman Can attended as spokesman. Former Judge of European Human Rights Court Rıza Türmen wrote about the meeting in his column in Milliyet Gazette under the headline "Rights of Sexual Minorities.

Is homophobia a presumption in Media?: Homophobia in media, in the 3 meetings which were organized this year handled. To the forums in İstanbul, Eskişehir and Ankara, many academicians and LGBT activists attended from Communication and Law faculties.

In the forums in which "Media's Homophobia and Homophobia's Media" subject was handled, "Environment is virtual, Hatred is Real: Blogs, Social Media Networks and Homophobia in Video Games", Organization in the new media environment and hatred speech", Producing hatred speech through facebook and its being strengthened", "Activism in the new media environment and organizations" headlines were also discussed. Restrictions on Internet and homophobic hatred speech discussions were the ones which took the interests most.

Campus Meetings against Homophobia: Student societies from Karadeniz Techical (Trabzon), 19 Mayıs (Samsun), Çukurova (Adana), Mersin, Trakya (Edirne), Akdeniz (Antalya), Adnan Menderes (Aydın), Ege (izmir), Dokuz Eylül (İzmir), Bahçeşehir (İstanbul), İstanbul Sabancı (İstanbul) Boğaziçi (İstanbul), Hacettepe (Ankara), Ankara and Ortadoğu Technical Universities (Ankara) attended to the meeting against homophobia.

Karadeniz Technical, Akdeniz and Trakya universities didn't provide us a place for the events. However, the student societies in these universities, despite all preventions of the presidency, didn't give up and the events were made in a different place in the city center. Presidency of ODTÜ University in Ankara didn't allow some of the campus events to be done. Demonstration of a lesbian documentary and a play of a transgender performer were prevented via closing down the saloons.

Meeting of Arkadaş Z. Özger: Events organized in the name of Arkadaş Z. Özger, a poet who lived in the 70's when gays and lesbians weren't out made in Ankara University Cebeci Campus. This event is organized by Kaos GL, Students' Solidarity of Faculty of Political Sciences and SBF Human Rights Center. The event which is organized in the memory of the poet will continue to be done every year in Cebeci Campus where the had his education.

Woman to Woman Story Contest: The award giving ceremony of the 5th Woman to Woman Story Contest is done just before "Lesbian and Bisexual Women's Forum" in the concept of the meeting. Last year, a book which included the stories in the contest which was organized by Kaos Woman was published. The book found bawdy and was sued. The trials are still continuing.

Forum of Homophobia and Left: Left and homophobia was discussed in two forums one of them in campus and the other in central program with the attendance of many representatives of various political parties and organizations. The question "Why Left in Turkey is too late to face homophobia?" was discussed. It was indicated that Left had to see the cause of homophobia after the improving LGBT movement.

Marching against Homophobia and Transphobia !

The 5th. Meeting against Homophobia was completed with Marching against Homophobia and Transphobia on 16th of May which started at 13:00.

Marching made under the rainbow flag against homophobia, transphobia and hatred. On the main banner of the marching "Neither a sin nor an illness, Long live gay/lesbian love" was written.

For the pictures :
http://www.kaosgl.org/icerik/homofobi_karsiti_bulusmanin_besincisi_sona_...

From ainfos.ca