11th LGBT Pride Parade

 21st LGBT Pride Week

Pride parades for the LGBT community are events celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) culture. The events also at times serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage. Most pride events occur annually and many take place around June to commemorate the Stonewall riots, a pivotal moment in the modern LGBT rights movement.

Turkey is the first Muslim majority country in which gay pride march is held. In Istanbul (since 2003) and in Ankara (since 2008) gay marches are being held each year with a small but increasing participation. Gay pride march in Istanbul started with 30 people in 2003 and in 2010 the participation became 5,000. The Istanbul pride of 2011 is considered as the biggest of Turkey until now, with roughly 30,000 participants. Politicians of the biggest opposition parties, CHP and BDP also lent their support to the demonstration. The pride march in Istanbul does not receive any support of the municipality or the government. The capital city, Ankara also has a pride parade.

 

Pride Parade Last Year

This year pride parade will be held on 30th of june in istanbul. The parade will begin at17:00 (5 pm) from Taksim Square through Istiklal Street. Do not forget to wear colorful clothes and take your rainbow flag with you!

You may find the description of the facebook event below:

“Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans movement has reached its 21st year in Turkey. During the past twenty years, while the movement lived through conflicts, divergences, disputes both in itself and with other social movements, it also endeavoured to build solitarity networks, form alliances and reach the masses. Last year, twenty thousand of us occupied the streets together for the Istanbul Pride walk. The unifying force behind the walk was the demand for the existence of our sexual identities and sexual preferences in these lands. Today, we reached a point where we witness the existence of LGBT individuals from all walks of life and different forms of resistance methods both at the local and the international levels.Above everything else, in a society where we are deemed sick, deviant, immoral and culprit by the state authorities and officers, our efforts to voice demands of equality constituted a form of resistance. Despite the gender roles and norms that are reproduced and forced through a hegemonic language even by those from dissident circles, portraying our own gender performances and subjectivities was a form of resistance. Standing against the family, society’s “unique” building block and reproductive heterosexual marriages with the motto “Love is Solidarity” was a mode of resistance. Our coming out as LGBT individuals and our objection against the oppression of compulsory heterosexuality which starts when we are little “children” and intesifies as we are forced to become “students” and “employees” was a resistance. Our bedrooms, fantasies and loves were our resistance. The long hours we spent in front of houses bereft of justice, in solidarity with those defenders of rights who are taken into custody one by one by the authorities who take no precautions whatsoever and who enforced no legal sanctions against the murderers of LGBT individuals was a form of resistance. For the 21st İstanbul Pride Week which will take place between the 24th and 30th of June 2013, we decided on the theme of “Resistance”. We invite all of you to join us in 21st year of our struggle. Come and join us so that we can, despite our divergences and conflicts, through solidarity and alliances, continue to cherish our differences and experiences, raise our enthusiasm, feel the rhythm and voice our resistance louder and stronger than ever!”

Click here to see the event on facebook.