The rape and death of a Turkish transgender woman last week has renewed calls for protection for the LGBT community in the beleaguered Middle Eastern country.
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Hande Kader, a trans woman who lived in the city, was the subject of a missing person’s announcement after her friends reported that she had disappeared. At press time, more than 3,000 people had indicated on Facebook that they planned to attend the march.
“We will not stop until we find those responsible for Hande Kader’s murder”, Ebru Kiranci, spokeswoman for Istanbul’s LGBTI Solidarity Association, said. But while it may tempting to imagine Kader’s death was an extreme case, Dengiler says violence is a fact of life for transgender people in Turkey.
Although police had water cannons, they were not used.
The murdered sex worker became an iconic figure in the LGBT community after she sat in front of water cannon and anti-riot officers in June past year as authorities tried to ban a gay pride parade in Istanbul.
During a “scuffle” as was described by the BBC, police opened fire with tear gas, using rubber bullets. She was a symbolic figure in the country and had been the face of demonstrations by the LGBT community, especially after last year’s gay pride parade.
Homosexuality is legal in Turkey but rights groups say hate crimes against the LGBT community are common.
Turkey has one of the highest rates of anti-trans killings, according to a 2016 Transgender Europe report.
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The murder of Kader comes two weeks after the murder of gay Syrian, Muhammad Wisam Sankari, who was found beheaded also in Istanbul.
