PRIDE WEEK
'Trans-Pedal Pride Ride' in İstanbul marks 51th anniversary of Stonewall Riots
Photo: Dönme Pedal / Intagram
Click to read the article in Turkish
The "Dönme Pedal" cycling group yesterday (June 28) marked the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall riots with a ride from Kurtuluş to Taksim in İstanbul.
"We embrace the LGBTI+ history of struggle, which has come to today by resisting bans, oppression," it said in an Instagram post.
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"Dönme'' is a pejorative word for transgender in Turkish slang. Its stem is also the same as "rotation" and "transition"; so it literally translates as both "rotating pedal" and "trans pedal."
"Dönme Pedal pursues new methods of struggle and resistance, rotates pedals against phobias," it said.
"We are flowing from everywhere in İstanbul, from the ghettos we have been squeezed in; we set out on the road with our bikes to scream that the city belongs to us, too.
"While our perception of space has been reshaping with the epidemic and quarantine, which followed the banned marches in recent years, we are attempting to format our relationship with İstanbul."
Fed up with the oppression and violence against themselves, the LGBTİ+ people rebelled in a bar named Stonewall Inn in New York, the US on June 28, 1969.
They locked in the police officers who raided the bar, held demonstrations and clashed with the police on the streets for four days.
The Stonewall Inn riots made a milestone in the history of the struggle of the LGBTİ+ people.
Since then, Pride Week has been held towards the end of June throughout the world. (EMK/VK)