Full statement of İstanbul Pride Parade Committee: 'You can't deal with queers'

We are organizing the 21st İstanbul Pride March. This year, under the theme of 'We are transitioning,'* we are here in the spaces you tried to push us away from. Those who even banned our tea gatherings have forgotten one thing: We have always been here, one morning on the Haliç Bridge, one night on the Bosphorus Bridge, suddenly in Harbiye.

We carry the anger of the lubunya [queers] who have been subjected to torture by the state and its law enforcement agencies, and we declare that our anger will burn you. We will not leave our spaces; you will get used to us. Today, despite all your prohibitions and against your wishes, we are still here. We announce loudly that every step we take is an act of pride.

We witnessed during the earthquake that affected Turkey, Kurdistan, and Syria on February 6 that queers are being isolated even in disaster areas through the intervention of the state. We do not recognize your fascist ideologies, the racism, homophobia, and transphobia you try to deepen, or your attempts to remove LGBTI+s from public spaces through fear tactics. We are returning to the spaces you tried to exploit with your profit-driven politics. Against the politics of hatred in Turkey and Kurdistan, with every breath we take, we shout again: we are returning, we are here, and we are not leaving.

After the elections, we saw once again that we were targeted in the balcony speech. We reject this politics of hatred and denial. Despite all the prohibitions, criminalizations, pressures, and attempts to suppress us, we will continue to advocate for a humane life for everyone and persist in democratic living. We draw this determination not only from our own tradition but also from the Saturday Mothers who are arrested with reversed handcuffs in Galatasaray Square every week and the resistance on Ülker Street.

Alongside the systematic attacks by the government against LGBTI+ people, Kurds, women, refugees, sex workers, and workers, our lives are being criminalized by the ruling alliance. To those who withdrew from the Istanbul Convention and criminalized us overnight, we say: We will never submit! We will not give up our lives, our existence!

From the highest level to the lowest level of the state, you targeted us. But today, we are STILL HERE. You couldn't handle us, and you won't be able to.

You can't deal with queers! (VK)

*In the original statement, the term used was "Dönüyoruz", derived from dönme, which is a pejorative expression for trans people in Turkish. Dönme literally translates as "turned," as in transitioning from one gender to another. However, the LGBTI+ community in Turkey has since reclaimed this term.