07/05/2020 | Writer: Yiğit E Korkmaz

The website of the May 17 Association, which provides expert support to LGBTI+ organizations in a variety of fields, has been opened: www.17mayis.org

May 17 Association's website is online Kaos GL - News Portal for LGBTI+

The website of the May 17th Association, which was founded in Ankara in September 2019, has become online.

The association, which aims to strengthen the LGBTI+ community and activism, has provided expert support to LGBTI+ organizations in resource development, project development, strategic plan creation, risk management, management, and governance. To this day, May 17th has provided specialist support on various issues to 8 LGBTI+ organizations from Ankara, Antalya, Bursa, Istanbul, and Mersin. LGBTI+ organizations seeking specialist support from the May 17 association can e-mail to info@17mayis.org address.

What kind of activities does May 17 carry out?

In addition, the association has also started its studies in the field of elderliness and HIV.

The May 17 Association introduces their fields of work through the newly opened www.17mayis.org website as follows:

“The May 17 Association primarily aims to strengthen the LGBTI+ community and LGBTI activism against increasing pressure against the LGBTI+ community. The association's founders are predominantly LGBTI+ activists and professionals working in this field. In line with the needs arising during capacity building activities of LGBTI+ organizations and activists being able to provide support and intervention to crises are among the priority areas of the association's work.

“Due to its headquarters being in Ankara, the association will work to strengthen the communication of the movement, which has weakened ties with the LGBTI+ community because of the Ankara bans and increased pressure.”

Elderliness

The May 17 association began its work in the field of old age under the name "Lubunya40+". On December 13-15, 2019, they held their first workshop. The agenda of the work, which is carried out with the participation of more than twenty LGBTI+ people, is as follows:

"Being aware that the LGBTI+ movement in Turkey is a relatively young social movement, and the people who participate in this struggle are entering the aging process but they were not on the agenda of the LGBTI+ movement before, we believe that it is our responsibility as the people who started the LGBTI+ movement, to help our community to overcome one of the fears experienced by many LGBTI+ people, the fear of aging and being alone."

HIV

The May 17 Association's first activity in the field of HIV was to attend the "Living Politics: Remembering HIV/AIDS Activism Tomorrow", the closing conference of the EUROPACH project in Germany/Berlin, on September 12-13, 2019. The May 17 association's founders also participated in the "HIV and Anti- Discrimination Stakeholder Workshop" hosted by Kaos GL. The May 17 association described its approach to HIV after these two events:

"With this conference and workshop, we decided to focus on the HIV issue from a broader framework, realizing that HIV should not be evaluated not only within the scope of a healthcare right but also as an equal citizenship issue."

Empowering LGBTI+ organizations and society

The May 17 Association; has determined to empower LGBTI+ organizations, activists, and society as its third field of activity:

“We can summarize the approach of our association, which inherited this goal from the Kaos GL Association in Ankara, in these words.

"In the recent process, threats to the LGBTI+ community and activism are increasing. In order to support the sustainability of LGBTI+ organizations in this respect, we aim to provide support in fields such as resource development, finance, and administrative affairs, advocacy, and digital security. In particular, it is aimed to establish professional and voluntary support teams that can intervene in crisis moments. We will carry out our activities in these fields in cooperation with Kaos GL.

“Under the program aimed to support LGBTI+ activists, the association will create a pool of specialists who will contribute as volunteers. It is envisaged to provide expert support in areas such as administration, finance, resource development, project cycle, accounting, volunteer management, administrative procedures, corporate communications."

Translation: Yiğit E. Korkmaz


Tags: human rights
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