Next to Brazil, the most dangerous place to be a trans person is in Turkey. It has the deleterious combination of rampant transphobia, no hate crimes or anti-trans discrimination laws on their national legal books to combat it and police in some cases indifferent to bringing the perpetrators of these killings to justice. .
According to Transgender Europe, between January 2008 and December 2012 there were 30 murders of Turkish trans persons. It pales in comparison to the trans bloodletting going on in Brazil but one murdered transperson is one too damned many.
But despite being number two in terms of those reprehensible rankings, the Turkish government persists in its obstinate refusal to pass those obviously needed laws.
But with the murder of 24 year old Dora Özer, our Turkish transsisters may have finally hit their sick and tired of being sick and tired of this jacked up situation tipping point.Özer was found brutally stabbed to death by her roommate in the apartment they shared in the town of Kudadasi.
In the wake of her senseless murder, the Turkish trans community launched a wave of coordinated protests across the nation yesterday in the cities of Adana, Ankara, Diyarbakir, Eskişehir, İstanbul and İzmir. There was also a protest in the German capital of Berlin where there is a sizable Turkish expat community.
During the marches our Turkish trans cousins and allies condemned the rampant transphobia in their nation that fuels the violent anti-trans hatred aimed at them, protested government inaction on the issue and demanded justice for Dora. Here's hoping the march was successful and it accomplishes all of its goals, including getting justice for Dora.
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