Kesken left one nightclub to go from one nightclub to another. Istanbulwhen it all happened was it past At two o’clock in the morning of May 4, as the fine weather started in the city, he and his friends wanted to celebrate.
A policeman stopped the group in the street.. She, Kesken, was the only transgender. They began to call her “whore”. grab it They got it. At the police station they put him in a separate room. “touched me everywhere. They hit me in the face with a stick. A policeman took me to the bathroom. He filled a dirty garbage bag with water. He hit me from behind. Someone slapped me on the ground. Blood. I they broke your nose. they touched me they told me apologize. I refused, I shouted. He had done nothing. They only let me go when I apologized,” Kesken explains between sobs, researching every word of a background he doesn’t want to revisit, recent, still living in his head.
“Since that time I’m scared when I go out. I cannot walk alone. I’m walking with a pepper spray in your hand. I tremble if someone touches me. I’m constantly looking behind me. This is so hard. Saying it’s easy. My friends support me, but they will never understand what I’m going through,” says Kesken.
Kesken has 25 yearsshe is beautiful, tall, she changed her gender a little less than a year ago and is one of the lucky few Turkish transgender people: her family, she explains, was upset, she cried, now they see her as a stranger, but his mother no longer calls him son but daughter; niece, aunt and proud. “I love my country Turkey. I respect him. But this society rejects us. it is very difficult to live in your own country as if you were a refugee”says Kesken, the biggest mistake of all that has happened, statedirects the society wherever it wants. And they, transsexuals – gays as well – are paying the price for it.
of course change
everything started to change in 2016. Until that year, she wore rainbows every June to celebrate Istanbul. most It was shown to the world as the month of pride and the executive branch of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. conservative and islamYes but tolerant.
That year, however, Erdogan’s party became a ultra-nationalist organization. Pressure on opponents and dissidents increased; space for public complaint started to shrink.
This alliance continues, and where Erdogan said a few decades ago that homosexuals have as much right as anyone else, now his government speaks of them as follows: “terrorists”, “immoral” and “rotten”. A few days ago, the Turkish Minister of the Interior announced that the Western embassies “take out our genders and be LGBT”.
“Anyone in this country who doesn’t think like them is a terrorist. For God’s sake. Where does terror want it? fight for equality between people? Someone explain it to me!” says. eceA transgender woman in her fifties dedicated to wrestling defense of rights Number of transsexuals in Turkey.
“We are cut off access to work. All doors are closed to us, and the vast majority of us eventually have to do this. prostitute ourselves against our will. I was forced to. I lived on the street for 4 years. I had to do this. I had to survive. I sold my body to survive,” explains Ece.
without alternative
He says Kesken was forced to do the same: escort despite having studies, who knocked on all possible doors, took vocational courses. They’re all in their face.
“Because we are transgender it is very difficult for us to find a normal job and that is visible. This causes problems. a society where we are not acceptedas i said we are refugees and we are always exposed abuse. And if something goes wrong, we will always be to blame for what happened in front of the police. we always less than in the eyes of society. This, of course, happens to women, not just transgender women,” explains Kesken.
“Finally, my only goal this is on my ID card k of the woman (Woman In Turkish). this is my dream and marry a man who loves me. That’s all I want,” says Kesken.
Source: Informacion
