Judith Butler sends solidarity message to LGBTI+ community in Turkey

Renowned philosopher and activist Judith Butler delivered a solidarity message to the LGBTI+ community in Turkey during the "Queer Talks" event organized by Pinhan Publishing House.

Held at the Mülkiyeliler Association in Ankara on June 14, the event marked the publication of the book "Queer Yazıları" (Queer Writings), which was prepared by Ulaş Bager Aldemir. Butler joined a distinguished lineup of speakers, including Alev Özkazanç, Aylime Aslı Demir, İlker Hepkaner, and Greta Gaard, who explored various aspects of queer theories and subjects.

In their address, Butler acknowledged the challenging times faced by the LGBTI+ community, emphasizing the significance of democracy, activism, and the struggle for equality. Their message resonated with the pressing need for sustained media attention, expanded alliances, and the embodiment of a queer democracy that upholds the rights and worth of all individuals.

Full text of Butler's message, as reported by Kaos GL:

"Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today. It is a difficult time, a time when so many are losing hope. The election that should have deposed Erdogan was not successful, but that does not mean that the struggle comes to an end. Yea, we care about electoral democracy and we struggle to make sure that those who would destroy democracy or forbid its unfolding are not elected. But sometimes we fail and the failure can lead to a sense of profound political despondency. But let us remember that as crucial as fair elections are, and they are, no election can stand for all that we mean by democracy.

"For queer people, for all those who struggle for feminism and LGBTQIA + rights and powers, democracy has an embodied sense, a lived reality. We are the ones who demand that we become free to assemble in the streets without fear of police violence or street violence permitted by the police. We are the ones who seek equality in our lives, who demand to be treated equally, to be regarded as lives worth living, supporting and affirming. We are the ones who want justice as we call for the end to fascist violence to security terror and to the abandonment and instrumentalization of migrant lives, including queer migrants subject to arbitrary state violence.

"So yes, we see that at least in Turkey our rights, the value of our lives were either openly negated by the ruling party or relegated to secondary importance by those who should be our allies. We act, we gather, we speak, we honor those already killed even as we risk our own lives. We are struggling, all of us, for a world in which our lives can neither be bargained away nor simply annihilated. But if you speak this way, speaking brings you into peril. If you gather, as is your right, you are accused of domestic terrorism. If we struggle for basic rights, your claims are regarded as a threat to public health and state security.

"So what form does the action take? And what responsibility do all of outside Turkey have to document what happens there [...]

"It is not enough that a single event of police brutality or murder appears in a news cycle and then is forgotten. What is needed is sustained media attention and expanding alliances. and by media I mean social media and videography, films, lectures, books, and by alliances I mean not only with other queer activists in Turkey or in the region, but across the hemispheres. And one reason for this is that the new forms of authoritarian that we see throughout the world have taken aim at gender and sexuality, race and migration, in order to circulate falsifying and inciting phantasms to frighten the public and present themselves as the o my sure way to return to law and order, patriarchal and heteronormative. And we know that Erdogan looks over at Orban, and Orban looks at Trump and deSantis, that Meloni goes to the same meetings, and that Bolsonaro was part of that mix until he was brought down. And yes he was brought down as was Trump, and as your current president will be in time.

"So what is it that we need in these days to demand a democracy for the living, a democracy in which our embodied lives are everywhere regarded as lives worth living and affirming?

"Where we gather as living and breathing creatures without fear of violence.

"Where we appear in the light of day without fear of pathologization.

"Where our speech is heard and honored and our claims are recognized as just, affirmed and honored as just.

"As much as it is important to bring attention to violations when they happen, we must also be building our vision of what democracy can be, that is queer democracy.

"And those who do not join us, are joining in violence. They should be told. They should know.

"We have to become the ever-strengthening embodiment of the democracy we want to realize in this world within and beyond the borders imposed in our common humanity where our differences are vital and generative, and where our struggle embodies the ideals we seek to realize. We do not follow a straight path to liberation. we move around the edges and through the heart, awakening a desire for freedom stronger than any fear." (VK)