“We are insistent in our demand to include ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ in the Constitution’s article on ‘equality’.” -- 28 LGBTI and allied organizations in Turkey.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) welcomes the efforts of BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) and CHP (Republican People’s Party) on behalf of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Turkey to include sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) in the country's new Constitution. Further work to protect LGBT people from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity is needed, though this effort itself a stunning breakthrough.

For over a decade, numerous campaigns by the LGBT movement in Turkey have been calling for inclusion of SOGI in the Constitution's Equality clause, to guarantee freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In recent years the demand of the LGBT community has been echoed by mainstream groups and political parties, such as BDP and CHP. Members of these two parties at the Parliament, including Binnaz Toprak, CHP member from Istanbul and 2013 Outspoken Honoree, have been actively supportive of providing legal protection for LGBT rights. According to CHP İzmir Parliamentarian Rıza Türmen, CHP proposed inclusion of "language, race, color, gender, political opinion, philosophical thoughts, religion, sect, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity, and other factors" as protected classes in the Equality clause. The ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party), which has a majority of representatives in Parliament, opposes any reference to SOGI in the Constitution. In a compromise on August 12, the Constitutional Reconciliation Commission bowed to pressure from both sides and agreed to reference SOGI only in the preamble, without any mention in the Equality clause.

"While IGLHRC welcomes the mention of SOGI in the preamble of the draft Constitution as a significant milestone in the LGBT struggle, we fully support the demand of our partners and their allies in Turkey for full legal protection against discrimination and abuse through inclusion of SOGI in the Equality clause of the draft constitution," said Hossein Alizadeh, Program Coordinator for Middle East and North Africa, IGLHRC.

A joint statement, signed by 28 LGBT and allied organizations in Turkey, released on August 16, said: “We are insistent in our demand to include ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ in the Constitution’s article on ‘equality’.”

For the full statement, read: Press Release by LGBTI Organizations in Turkey on the Constitutional Draft »

Also read a special assessment of the inclusion of SOGI in the Constitution's Preamble by CHP İzmir Parliamentarian and former European Court of Human Rights judge Rıza Türmen: "A Milestone in the Turkish State’s Constitutionalism".

(This release and the release by LGBTI Organizations in Turkey may be reprinted in part or whole without further permission, with appropriate acknowledgment of source)