Turkish activists demand equality for children

History was made in Turkey last week with the first ever formal appearance by an LGBT group in the country’s Parliament, as activists seek guarantees against sexual discrimination in the new constitution currently being drawn up.

The meeting comes as a groundbreaking feature length documentary, My Child, is planned to be released in June which will look at the stories of parents and their LGBT children growing up in modern day Turkey – where government restrictions as well as age-old traditions and customs governing ideas of kinship, family and honour allow for widespread homophobia and transphobia.

Activists from the Social Policies, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association (SPOD) attended the Constitution Conciliation Commission in Ankara on January 16 to demand that any new charter specifically prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual identity and sexual orientation, such is the case in the EU and elsewhere.

SPOD chairperson Sedef Çakmak said that references to “general morality” in current provisions concerning basic rights are often used by the Turkish Government as well as by police authorities as a means to push discriminatory measures upon the local LGBT community, Hurriyet reports.

Only in 2010, former Minster for Women and Family, Selma Aliye Kayaf, caused widespread controversy after likening homosexuality to an illness.

“I believe homosexuality is a biological disorder, a disease. It needs to be treated,” Kayaf said at the time.

Although LGBT activists in Turkey have become more vocal and organised since the 1990s, according to the results of a recent university survey 84 per cent of those polled stated that they do not want to be neighbours with members of the LGBT community.

Further, a recent report published by Amnesty International showed that Turkish judicial records included 16 murder cases in 2010 where the victim’s sexual orientation was the cause, with the cases making up all known hate crimes in the country that year.

The director and producer of My Child, Can Candan – who is also a leading lecturer in film at Istanbul's Bogazici University – said that such statistics help explain why more Turkish people need to be educated on matters dealing with sexual orientation and cultural identity.

“Although the ‘nature vs. nurture debate’ continues, it is now a scientific fact that when it comes to sexual orientation, it is not a disease as the Turkish minister Kavaf unfortunately has declared, or something one chooses, therefore parents really have no say in whether their children become LGBT individuals,” Candan said.

The documentary, which is due to finish shooting this month, follows some of the families who make up LISTAG (Families of LGBT in Istanbul) – the country’s largest support group for the parents, relatives and friends of LGBT people – as they discuss coming to terms with their children’s sexual orientation and gender identity.

“In collaboration with the parents, My Child aims to make their experiences public and visible, to encourage a debate about family, sexuality, sexual identities and sexual orientation, to offer an alternative family model, to assist in social transformation, and to let other LGBT individuals and families know that they are not alone,” Candan added.

“I hope this film will be a source of inspiration to all parents, not only in Turkey, but also all over the world.”

With the documentary set to screen during Turkey’s Pride Week in June, Candan is hopeful that funding and other assistance during post-production can be found to complete the project.

If you can contribute funding or assistance towards My Child or would like to know more, visit www.listagfilm.com or contact Hasan Metehan Ozkan at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Pictured: Marchers involved in Istanbul's annual Pride march.