* Note reads: “What the hell is good about being normal?”
Two days ago, a 17-year-old trans male Okyanus Efe Özyavuz committed suicide in Izmir.
Athlete Efe Özyavuz had a grand prize in Izmir and his region in the field of Kickbox. He had shared the note “What the hell is good about being normal?”on his Facebook account.
Today LGBTI organizations protested at 7 p.m. simultaneously outside the Cyprus Martyrs Erbil Süel store in Izmir, Galatasaray High School in Istanbul and the Human Rights Statue on Yüksel Avenue in Ankara.
“You killed him with the dualism of normal, abnormal”
In a written statement made under the leadership of T-Club Trans Males Culture Production Platform and Voltrans Trans Males Initiative, they said: “ We accuse! You murdered Okyanus, you who are journalists, mothers, fathers, teachers, brothers, sisters, lovers! You who do not know loving unconditionally, you are killing a pure part inside of us with the dualism you always remind us ‘normal’ – ‘abnormal’.”
LGBTI organizations criticized the media for publishing the names of the trans individuals with their identity card names instead of the ones they use (such as “ Transvestite Ahmet nicknamed Esra”; or “Nil who changed his name as Rüzgar”). They said “We know even if you understand us a little bit now, you will publish the news with another name and we insist on saying ‘Okyanus’. We esteem his male identity chosen by him with his attire and the name he chose more than the identity the government gave us during the birth by looking our crotch.”
These were mentioned in the statement:
“Choose between lying to yourselves forever and facing with the whole world. Change for being yourselves by facing the world and obeying to be labelled as ‘abnormal’… Nonetheless, just imagine how it would be like to bear being not accepted as ‘normal’ in all your life…
“We trans people each day, each moment live on, despite you. To protect the entirely fictional, damned ‘normal’, the normal that no one fits in; you endeavor to assimilate us with family, society and government pressure. We are not assimilated! We are not going to apologize for our existence!”
“The government does not recognize us even we are exposed to violence, by not adding a new article for LGBTIs to the new Hate Crimes Law, which means they are intended to trans individuals’ right to life.
The government played a huge role in the discrimination towards us by its police, teacher, doctor, law, and regulations. Our basic rights such as sheltering, education and employment are often hindered just because of our sexual identity. These are just a few of the reasons paving the way for the murders and suicides.
“We announce: The offender is the government, offender is the society, offender is the ‘normal!’” (ÇT/MEV/BM)
* Click here to read the article in Turkish.
