Letter from KaosGL.org editor-in-chief Yıldız Tar, 13.03.2025

Yıldız Tar is the editor-in-chief of KaogGL – news portal for LGBTI+. Tar is one of 30 people who were arrested on the 21st February 2025 as part of the Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK) investigation.

Letter from KaosGL.org editor-in-chief Yıldız Tar

Silivri Prison,

13.03.2025

I was hoping my first writing from Silivri would be a humorous piece about what goes on here. However, just as life is what happens to us while we’re busy making plans, imprisonment is just like life. When I was informed of the law draft aiming to target all LGBTI+ individuals as criminals, the story of my arrestation stopped being worth telling.

Just as I began to get accustomed to prison, I came across the news of this sinister law draft which practically outlaws being LGBTI+. Although, because we have access to few newspapers, I am not fully aware of all its details, I could get an idea of the draft thanks to BirGün’s article based on KaosGL.org, and Sarya Toprak’s detailed article. This issue, which Hürriyet and Karar (the newspapers we receive in our cells) have barely touched upon, is the most important step of the war led by the government against LGBTI+ people. Although BirGün has evoked the issue through the angle of secularity, we’re facing a danger much wider and more global.

As we were pacing in the courtyard, someone who was arrested as part of the same operation as me pointed to the article and joked “Even if we get released, you won’t. You will spend many years here, at the rate of 3 years per article”. I laughed, but I believe that creating a state of panic through such a shocking doctrine is the exact aim of this draft. When trapped in a state of panic, social opposition can become apt to accept to such laws and regulations.

In order to touch upon this state of panic, let’s get to the point. It seems that the draft has two main lines and purposes. The first is to render the gender adjustment process as difficult as possible. Behind this purpose lies an overly dramatised conspiratorial medicalism. In any case, the overly medicalised autonomy of body, and the gender adjustment process which should be approached in the context of the rights to self-determination and dignity has been treated as a medical and legal phenomenon for years. If this draft is enacted, we will face the extorsion of previously earned rights (in spite of all the shortfalls and issues mentioned above).

This intervention reminiscent of the 70’s and 80’s opens the way for the judgement of doctors operating “without permission” and it will bring along a consequence other than a mere de facto prohibition. We could face a situation similar to when they tried, and failed, to ban abortion but succeeded in bringing down the number of clinics performing them considerably. Even if this draft changes or doesn’t pass, it could propagate an atmosphere of fear amongst surgeons. We need a counter reaction, similar in scale to the feminists’ “My body, my choice” campaign.

The second line is the effort to create crimes and criminals through expressions such as “attitudes not conforming to biological gender”, “encouragement”, “general morals” largely inspired by the “prohibition of propaganda” in Russia and Trump’s decrees. I am currently reading John Steinbeck’s East of Eden in prison. This passage which touches upon the Spanish invasion of the new world is also relevant in this context: “When the Spaniards came they had to give everything they saw a name. This is the first duty of any explorer —a duty and a privilege.” The ruling power prepares to invade the whole existence of the LGBTI+ people. And it isn’t doing it namely but by using their own labels such as “biological gender” and “general morals”.

The prohibition of “homosexuality”, as they called it then, through “sodomy laws” which the western state of law took over from the church 100-150 years ago is now out of fashion. The dominant character of the new era is formed by a set of laws which don’t seem to prohibit identity or sexuality openly but do so insidiously. When taken alone, these laws born from conspiracy theories entrap sexual orientation and sexual identity – which are a usual and ordinary part of life – in an exceptional state and a state of emergency. The logic behind this state aims to normalise the mentality which prohibits defending LGBTI+ rights, having visibility, dressing as one wishes, talking as one wishes, in brief existing in the public space as a social and political subject. What is at stake is the legalisation of the prohibition of LGBTI+ events just as it happened indeterminately in Ankara during the state of emergency. There’s an attempted move from restriction to regulation and although the two may sound similar, the difference between them affects LGBTI+ people’s lives.

The difference between sexual orientation and sexual identity – which is revealed by the expressions used in the wording of the draft, doesn’t mean much. A trans woman wearing a skirt or a man loving another man can be equally judged as “attitudes not conforming to biological gender”.

If this draft, which aims to establish norm through law, is applied as a premise similar to Russia, then any representation, expression, and symbol of LGBTI+s could be prohibited. However, it still is possible for this draft which is not yet a law to be changed or scrapped. For this, we need to rid ourselves of the fore-mentioned state of panic and weave the widest possible societal and political objection through rational means. As I can see from the news, the LGBTI+ associations have already raised their voices. We have no other choice but to amplify these voices. Every person struggling for social and political equality, freedom and justice has a responsibility – on an individual as well as collective level. What places a person on the right side of history and humanity, more than the positions they take are the actions they take.

I’m ending this first writing from prison with a song. The piece I promised about custody and arrestation outfits, prison fashion and most prized undergarments of Silivri will have to wait for another time. But let me tell you: Silivri is not that cold¹. It’s just like the sea, you get used to it once you’re in…

Our song is Yasaksa Yasak by Nükhet Duru.

‘’Yasaksa yasak, günahsa günah

Kim yaktıysa bu ateşi o söndürsün o zaman’’

If it’s forbidden, may it be forbidden. If it’s a sin, may it be a sin.

Then, whoever started the fire can put it out.

Yıldız Tar

1. “Silivri [prison] is probably cold now” is a popular expression which jokingly refers to people thinking twice about speaking their mind, lest they find themselves in prison. ↩︎