Proudly Trans in Turkey Collaborative Project Ten Years On: A Conversation

Gabrielle Le Roux + Sema Semih

VIA FB messenger
May 1, 2021:
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Sema Hello Gabrielle, how are you? Today I gave a talk on Transfeminist History in Turkey and mentioned our exhibition as one of the turning points of trans struggle here, through giving a positive image of trans identity and embracing the diversity and uniqueness of trans experience. I wanted to let you know about this. I also wrote about this work in my master thesis. Much love ❤️

Gabrielle Hi Sema, thanks for this lovely message. Do you think our project would be a good fit for the Queer Aesthetics call for papers? Would you be interested in a conversation with me in which we reflect on our project and submit together?
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Sema Yes! I don't know any more meaningful project that would suit this call for papers better  because our project is related with gender activism and aesthetics with a specific focus on trans/queer issues. It is an interdisciplinary work that brings together creative and critical potentiality of the art of painting and storytelling with queer politics. It's also a collaborative work, since we contributed with our words, bodies and stories. Proudly Trans in Turkey was realized in a political context in which the trans movement emerged as a new political stance in Turkey, and in a social setting in which trans people were the direct target of violence and discrimination of diverse sorts.
Portraits of the trans activists who were living and struggling in different parts of Turkey in combination with the interviews broadcast on Youtube, made visible the realities of trans lives, contributing tothe transformation of negative attitudes and prejudices against trans people—in LGBTI+, feminist organizations,and in society at large. It was the first time that the trans movement, and in fact the LGBTI+ movement, was using YouTube as an active way to be seen on social media. There is a long history of the struggles of trans people in Turkey, specifically starting in the aftermath of the 1980 military coup. However, trans people were able to come together and raise their voices  together after the turn of the millennium. The first trans NGOs were founded in 2006 and the first Trans Pride Week and Trans Pride March happened in 2010 when we started the project. In those  times, we were mostly worried about hate crimes. The ghettos in which most trans people were  living were under attack by the state authorities and conservative right-wing political groups. Besides, trans people were being represented in the mainstream media as terrorists and blamed for causing social unrest by doing sex work in the streets.  
Because of the transphobia fostered by the mainstream media and social structure at that time, trans  people faced difficulties in organizing in LGBTI+ communities which had previously only catered to gay people and feminist groups, many of which had been made up exclusively of cis women, some of whom were also, unfortunately, transphobic.
The project gave us the aesthetic and creative tools to engage with the harsh politics of the state in a peaceful and joyful way. It certainly added another layer to the creative side of the movement. It was so empowering, both for the participant activists and for others sharing similar experiences. The people in the project have become my close friends; we are still in touch and stay connected to each other's lives.  

Gabrielle This project came about when I was invited to bring my previous collaborative body of  work, Proudly African & Transgender, a series of portraits and stories of trans activists from seven  countries in Africa, to exhibit during Istanbul Pride Week in 2010. Wherever this work is shown, local trans activists are invited to the opening to speak about their context and challenges. This was how I met Şevval Kılıç, a long-standing spokesperson for the trans movement and DJ. We were drawn to each other’s work and politics immediately. She was excited about encountering African trans activists through the exhibition, and I felt very honored that she thought that a similar project could be an effective advocacy tool in Turkey.  She suggested we co-create something. She was so deeply loved and respected by activists around the country so many wonderful people wanted to be part of it and felt safe to share their stories with so much intimacy and depth.
The events of Pride Week were stimulating, fun and fiercely critical, showcasing a mobilized and  politicized community where the rights of the most vulnerable were prioritized. In Europe, I had been seeing the opposite—Prides were depoliticized, corporate vehicles for branding and state  pinkwashing.  
We agreed to collaborate, with Şevval leading the project. We put out an invitation to people who  already had a track record as trans activists to think about what they would like to talk about on a  public platform and in what form they would like to tell their stories. Activists were also invited to  sit for me to draw a portrait of them, and to write onto their portrait whatever they wanted to say  about themselves. We connected with younger and older people from across the country. We thought  maybe ten or twelve participants would be good, but people kept joining and when there were eighteen, we had to stop.
We had the support of Amnesty Turkey, Pembe Hayat and the Dutch Embassy in Istanbul and this  made a whole lot of things possible. Many wonderful people worked with the project. To my initial surprise, the group chose video as the medium to tell their stories. With the level of risk attached to photos or videos, and the high rate of transphobic violence, I was concerned that this was really dangerous, but Şevval explained that the hateful media was responsible for a lot of public  ignorance, and that our project represented the space to speak about what mattered to the community. We then workshopped the questions. The eighteen key questions that emerged are what shaped the video installation.  

Sema Some questions were really playful. They were just basic things like how old you were, who your role model was, etc. Hearing the diverse answers our friends gave created a sense of joy. I think the simplicity of some questions also caught much more public attention. Many people reached out to me after seeing those videos and told me their stories and so I know it has had a huge influence. In my personal experience, it was the first time that I saw myself as a real activist during the project. I was active in the movement before, but everything became more serious after the exhibition because I became more visible and more people started to recognize me from the videos.
Today, the conservative politics of the government and the anti-gender, extreme right-wing movement in Turkey target the lives of women and LGBTI+s everyday. Femicides, hate crimes, and gender-based violence have unfortunately increased in the country in recent years. Almost every day we hear about a crime that targets LGBTIs. Recent socio-political changes, the failed coup attempt in 2016, the state of emergency rule between 2016-2018, and Turkey's recent invasion of Syria have also added another dimension to the difficulties LGBTI+s experience daily. Although the LGBTI+  movement gained public visibility during the Gezi uprising in 2013, LGBTI+ events as well as pride marches were later banned by the state authorities even the Women’s Day Demonstration was blocked by the police in 2018. After those bans, the state also imposed restrictions on rainbow themed products since they were considered “propaganda” materials for LGBTI+s. Besides violence and discrimination, most LGBTIs faced also financial problems due to restrictions that came along with the pandemic. Lastly, President Erdoğan declared that Turkey wouldwithdraw from the İstanbul Convention which was a huge gain for the feminist movement here. It has been an important international agreement, protecting not only women’s rights, but also those of LGBTI+ people. Erdoğan’s decision got many reactions from feminist and LGBTI+ groups.  
Even under these terrifying conditions, the trans movement has gained more power. There are more trans people having diverse gender expressions and who are openly living and working in different layers of the society. There are also more NGOs today doing a lot of valuable work for visibility and reporting violations of LGBTI+’s human rights. LGBTI+ NGOs in Turkey have their own YouTube channels, discussing the issues of LGBTI+s in a creative and enjoyable way to transform the negative public image of trans identity and experiences. I am happy that together we have created a Youtube video installation of the project and reached so many people in an earlier time when it was desperately needed. It seems to me that our project was an initial step actually.  

We would like to jointly thank our wonderful collaborators and everyone who worked on and  supported the project. To meet everyone, hear their stories and view the portraits, please follow the links below. Special thanks to everyone who uses the work in their organising and teaches it in universities around the world.