Turkish LGBT activists address parliament

Activists from Turkey’s LGBT community made their first formal appearance in Parliament yesterday as they presented their demands for guarantees against sexual discrimination in the new constitution, Hurriyet Daily News reports.

The Social Policies, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association, which had earlier submitted a written report, was represented at the Constitution Conciliation Commission by Chairwoman Sedef Çakmak and executive board members Erdal Demirdağ and Osman Cihan Hüroğlu.

The activists said LGBT people were often forced to conceal their identity and demanded that the new charter explicitly ban discrimination on the basis of sexual identity and sexual orientation.

They pointed to the example of EU and North American countries, where discrimination against LGBT communities is formally acknowledged as a violation of human rights.