Discrimination adds to LGBTQ+ people's pain from 2023 Turkey quake

• After 2023 quake, LGBTQ+ survivors faced discrimination
• Anti-LGBTQ+ political rhetoric increases pressure
• Access to healthcare, including for HIV, difficult

ISTANBUL, Turkey – After he tested HIV positive in late 2022, 25-year-old Mehmet lost his job in an Istanbul textile shop, was ostracised by friends and returned to live with his parents in the city of Adiyaman in southeastern Turkey.

But a few months later, in the early hours of Feb. 6, a massive earthquake struck.

"As soon as I opened my eyes, I ran straight to my parents' bedroom," said Mehmet. "My mum hugged me and everything collapsed on us."

Both of his parents were killed, but Mehmet, who identifies as gay and used a pseudonym for fear of discrimination, somehow survived.

The twin earthquakes killed more than 59,00 people in Turkey and Syria, levelling thousands of homes and leaving millions homeless.

But civil society organisation say the impact has been particularly difficult for LGBTQ+ people, who have faced increased discrimination, with several reporting they had been denied shelter and access to health services after the quakes.

Cultural Studies Centre for Peace (bakad), an NGO, said in a report that existing discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people was exacerbated by the earthquake, impacting their access to housing, aid, health and other essential services.

Bakad also reported incidents of trans women being barred from entering camps set up to house the displaced, either by the authorities, those running the camps, or families living there. Other NGOs and LGBTQ+ people reported similar accounts.

"We talked to trans women who were chased out of the tent area and had to cut their hair to stand in line for bread," said a volunteer with Lubunya (Queer) Earthquake Solidarity, a group that helped LGBTQ+ people after the quakes.

Defne Guzel, an expert from Kaos GL, an advocacy group for LGBTQ+ rights, said in a 2023 report that the majority of LGBTQ+ survivors had difficulty accessing sexual health services and shelters after the earthquake. Some ended up back in family homes where they felt unsafe because of their identities.

For people with HIV, like Mehmet, there was also the added problem of accessing life-saving drugs and medical treatment due to widespread stigma.

Mehmet's hip was injured when his building collapsed and he was taken to hospital in the nearby city of Sanliurfa for surgery. But when he told the surgeon he was HIV positive, he said he was scolded and lectured about Islam and family values.

Later, during his rehabilitation in Adiyaman state hospital, he said a nurse threatened to discharge him because of his HIV status.

The Health Ministry estimates around 46,000 people have HIV in Turkey and nearly 2,500 have AIDS. But Cigdem Simsek, founder and director of Pozitif-iz, an association that works with people with HIV, says the actual number is significantly higher.

"People living with HIV are still subjected to stigmatisation and discrimination due to ignorance and prejudice," Simsek said.

'Systemic hatred'

Attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people in Turkey have become increasingly hostile in recent years, activists say.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month declared 2025 to be the 'Year of the Family' and said LGBTQ+ people were attacking the sanctity of the family.

"The LGBT perversion is encouraged and promoted by global culture. Turkey will continue to pioneer the fight against this perversion," Erdogan told a meeting of the women's branch of his party on Sunday.

Turkey has a poor track record on LGBTQ+ rights and ranks 46th out of 48 European countries according to ILGA-Europe's annual Rainbow Map. 

LGBTQ+ people have no protection from discrimination, same-sex couples have no legal recognition and changing gender involves a complex court process.

Amnesty International said last year that politicians and high-level government officials had used increasingly discriminatory and stigmatising rhetoric against LGBTQ+ people.

Guzel said government policies aimed to silence LGBTQ+ people and make them invisible.

"In addition to restriction of fundamental rights, such as housing or access to healthcare, it is possible to say that there is a systematic hatred toward LGBTQ+ (people)," she said.

Housing and health

Hasnaa, a Syrian trans woman who was still concealing her trans identity when the earthquake struck, saw her visibly trans friends kicked out of a mosque where they had sought refuge.

She was living in Sanliurfa when the quake struck and eventually went to Istanbul to join her family who had moved there after the quake.

When her uncle went back to Sanliurfa to clear his damaged home and found evidence of Hasnaa's trans identity, he outed her to her family and they kicked her out.

She headed back to Sanliurfa from Istanbul with only $200 in her pocket. She received some help from an advocacy group and has now applied for asylum in Europe.

Between 2008 and September last year, 68 trans people were killed in Turkey, according to data collected by Transgender Europe, a network of organisations that advocate for rights.

Hasnaa still struggles with homophobia and transphobia.

"Securing housing in earthquake-affected areas remains a struggle. Additionally, we face challenges within the aid system, which fails to adequately consider trans-specific needs in its programmes related to mental health, healthcare, and recovery projects," she said.

Soaring inflation of more than 40% and a housing crisis have exacerbated the difficulties of quake survivors, as has the rising anti-LGBTQ+ political rhetoric.

"LGBTI+ organisations and individuals are increasingly facing political pressure and many are facing serious difficulties in finding funding and sustaining their activities," said Atalay Gocer, the coordinator of bakad.

"There is a political pressure in Turkey and it is increasing in parallel with right-wing policies," he said.

With little hope for the future, Mehmet now lives in a container camp for people who lost their homes in the quakes in Adiyaman. He now works at a textile factory, earning around $620 a month, and struggles with money issues and loneliness.

"I cannot run since the earthquake. I cannot climb up stairs, cannot sit down on the floor ... How can I be a joyful person like I used to be? I really want to, but I cannot."

(Reporting by Beril Eski; Editing by Jon Hemming; Ana Nicolaci da Costa; Clar Ni Chonghaile)