AI Turkey - How do you describe your gender identity?

A Social Justice and Art project of Gabrielle Le Roux, about Trans Activists in Turkey with the support of Amnesty International Turkey and the Consulate General of Netherlands.

What better way to learn about the multiplicity of genders than to ask eighteen of Turkey's bravest and most outspoken trans activists? Their very diverse answers are a refreshing challenge to fixed notions of gender as something determined by your biological sex. As Selay puts it: "Being a woman has got nothing to do with having a vagina, being a man has got nothing to do with having a penis...it's all in your head."
This 18 part series of films provides a platform for trans activists to be seen and heard on their own terms.

There is a frighteningly high incidence of hate crimes and murders of transgender people, specially trans women, in Turkey, and a vibrant, motivated, politicized trans movement has emerged in response and is demanding to be heard. Trans activists of various genders, aged 24 -- 57 from five cities in Turkey speak out candidly and intimately about their lives and vision for a more inclusive world. Each film explores a different question.

These films comprise the video installation in the exhibition Proudly Trans in Turkey. The travelling exhibition, a cultural intervention for social justice, combines portraits drawn from life, first-person stories, interviews and video. It is a call to solidarity with the trans rights movement in Turkey. It is a co-creation between Turkish activists and South African artist and activist for social justice Gabrielle Le Roux.

This is an interactive initiative and we would love to know how and where these films are received. If you use them in your teaching/research/activism or advocacy work, please leave a comment or email proudlytransinturkey@gmail.com with feedback/questions

• Category

  Nonprofits & Activism

[christinaneo]

Thank you my queer brothers, sisters, genderless, gender-unidentified, genderblenders (I love this term!). I identify as a lesbian transwoman or a transdyke, because that's a political identity that needs defending right now, but more and more I think "why do people concern themselves with such trivial things as gender labels?"...

You made me smile, and you made my day! Heartfelt thanks from Greece, keep up the fight!

[eseninkafasiguzel]

bedenlerimizi içinde bulunduğumuz dünyaya göre adlandırmak zorunda oluşumuzu reddeden, sadece kendileri olan güzel insanlarsınız siz. biz ne isek oyuz ve sosyal ilişkilenmelerimizi, bedenlerimizle ilişkilenmelerimizi isimlendirmek isteyenlere karşı transgender bireylerin görünürlükleri ve varlıkları benim için bir umut kaynağıdır. röportajları verenlerin de alanların da ellerine dudaklarına yüreklerine sağlık.

[batikanars]

cok sekersinizzzz!!!! Toplumdaki sesimiz oldugunuz icin cok cok cok tesekkur ederim! Iyi ki varsiniz! Sizleri tanimak isterdim!

[onemorestory1]

It's so rude to call somebody "Querr" . They made you smile but you made them Fag . Well they're actually fag but you got me what I said.

[onemorestory1]

03:30 Selay karı mıymış ? Ay hiç belli olmuyor ama neyse. AY sinirlenme Selay abla tamam kadınsın anladık. Heralde mazinde çok fazla yaranı deşmişler.

[markangeloc]

Yes indeed they did.

[meralodem]

I heard that American-Indians also believed that the gays were two-spirited people, something like what you saying

[markangeloc]

We are two spirited , to want to return to the gender box that we left in my views is non productive. I believe our spirit is telling us something, to return to balance of both the yin and the yang. I am not a man, I am not a woman, I am two spirited the third gender and proud of it.

[sevkets]

beyler insanın cinsiyetini o kişinin genleri ve kromozmları belirler. xy kromozmlarına sahip bir insanın cinsiyeti erkektir. dış görünüşü ,kendini tanımlaması ve hareketleri kadına benzesede hatta vücudunun bazı uzuvlarını kadınlara benzetmiş olsa da kişinin genlerinde eğer xy kromozom dizilişi varsa bu kişi erkektir. hiçbirşey bunu değiştirmez