Out Spotlight CIII

Today's Out Spotlight is transgendered activist Demet Demir. Born in 1961 in Yalova, Turkey, she has been a transgendered activist since 1980 when she was jailed after the 1980 military coup of Turkey. She was jailed again in 1982, and again with torture in 1991.

Homosexuality is a crime in most Muslim nations, where penalties range from prison to death. But Turkey has no laws against it, and Istanbul, the largest city, attracts those whose sexual orientation would be considered aberrant elsewhere in the Muslim world. But to be a LGBT person in a country that is 99% Muslim is not easy.

Growing up , Demir preferred to play with girls instead of boys and around age 19 confirmed what the family suspected: "I said, 'You can send me away, but I'm not going to change.' " Although Demir's mother is a devout Muslim who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca, she accepted the news, and the two have remained close.

Like many Turkish transvestites beginning the transformation to woman, she initially wore heavy makeup and short skirts; tight-fitting pants revealing the outlines of her penis.

She worked for 15 years as a prostitute and was arrested more than 300 times, she says. She became active in the Radical Democratic Green Party, which championed sexual rights, and ran unsuccessfully for public office.

Demir established the first sexual minorities’ commission within the (Turkish) Human Rights Organization. She was responsible for printing up and distributing the first pink triangle badges in Turkey, and participated in the feminist movement and its organization, issuing a report for the first women’s congress in Turkey, and has also worked in organization fighting Aids-related illness. She took part in the successful campaigns against article 159, which prevented married women working without their husbands’ consent, and article 438, which decreases the punishment by one third in cases where the female victim is a prostitute.

In 1989, Demir traveled to Ankara as a journalist to observe a court trial. There her ID, which depicted her as a male, differed from her female appearance. She was questioned four times, tortured and beaten. Her purpose was questioned even after she presented a press card and she was told that as she was a gay she had no reason for her presence there.

She was the first trans woman and the first person considered a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International because of “sexual orientation”. She completed her transition in 1996. Demir received International Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Commission Felipa de Souza Award in 1997. On returning to Turkey after receiving the award, she was re-arrested within hours when she tried to help a young girl who was being beaten by police officers for selling handkerchiefs to help a transgender workshop.

Now the leading voice of Turkey's transvestite and transsexual community, thought to number around 3,000, Demir says the push for acceptance has been helped by the country's bid to join the European Union. The EU has been critical of Turkey's human rights record.

Demet Demir is known for her determination and activism. She continues to maintain a leadership role in her struggle against the harassment and intimidation against the transgender community in Istanbul.

I realized that I was different when I was five or six. I felt that I liked to be close to my own kind. Yes, I had a different sexual identity. But it was not important when I was a small child. They made me feel that it's important in my age of adolescence. Rules of morality, religion, and patriarchy. And the pressure of my family and the society was added to all these. It was only me who knew about my sexuality. I had to hide my emotions and it was very difficult. I was a prisoner everywhere.

Yes, it was hard to survive in a Muslim country and patriarchal, feudal society. I thought a lot about what I was guilty for but could not find an answer. It was impossible to match my life with religion because Islam rejects all gays, lesbians and transgendered people. Islam, with all institutions is one of the most important factors that darkens life for homosexuals.

I asked myself how I could overcome all these difficulties. I had to be a well-cultured person and next step would be to put pressure on people to learn about sexual culture. Because in Turkey the problem is not only with homosexuality, the problem is the whole sexuality! First I had to deal with my family. They knew I was like a girl and did not say anything when they saw me playing with girls all the time. But they could not accept that I was a homosexual. And even when I was still male I was sexually harassed by so-called "heterosexual" men around who wanted to sleep with me. It was my sexuality which was always emphasized about me.