All people deserve to live with dignity and humanity, and it is only right that everyone has the freedom to be who they are and to love whom they love. And yet, this is not the case in Türkiye — among other places.
We are deeply outraged by the Turkish government’s systemic campaign against the LGBTIQ+ community, which has escalated through harsher jail sentences, the silencing of civil society organizations, and the imposition of punishments for nonconformity with binary gender norms.
These attacks on the LGBTIQ+ community are a stark indicator of the shrinking civic space and ongoing democratic backsliding in Türkiye.
This deteriorating situation is reflected in the latest ILGA Rainbow Map, where Türkiye’s LGBTIQ+ rights record ranks among the most concerning in the region.
In a recent alarming move, the Ministry of Family and Social Services sent a directive to all state institutions banning the use of gender and LGBTIQ+ concepts in national education and policymaking. The directive, which simultaneously declares 2025 the “Year of the Family” while excluding and vilifying LGBTIQ+ people, exposes a deeply exclusionary agenda.
The Ministry’s decision to erase essential terms such as “gender,” “gender identity,” “LGBT,” “SOGIESC” and “comprehensive sexuality education” from public discourse constitutes a direct attack on the dignity, safety, and humanity of LGBTIQ+ people.
The entire directive and the narrative it is pushing are not only dangerous, but profoundly dehumanizing.
Additionally, one of the harshest anti-LGBTIQ+ laws in Europe is currently advancing through the Turkish Parliament. The bill severely restricts LGBTIQ+ expression and visibility, jeopardizes the right of trans people to marry, and permits arbitrary detention based on ambiguous allegations.
These ideologically driven attacks are not without consequence. Activists are reporting a rise in suicide among LGBTIQ+ people in Türkiye, driven by the increasingly hostile political environment.
No one deserves to face harm, abuse, or discrimination simply for being who they are. We stand in unwavering solidarity with the LGBTIQ+ community in Türkiye and ask allies to spread the word about the situation and call for the safety and protection of LGBTIQ+ people.
Read more:
A "warning" from the Ministry of Family to its directorates against LGBTI+: “Do not use the concepts of gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation”
ILGA Rainbow Map and Türkiye’s profile
Press release: Turkey poised to further roll back LGBTI rights amid ongoing democratic crackdown
Credits illustration: Paul Martín del Campo (Otto Pastias)
