07/04/2020 | Writer: Yiğit E Korkmaz
Kaos GL's Yıldız Tar has answered questions about sexual orientation and gender identity on the webinar of Pamukkale Turkish Medical Students Association.
Kaos GL has postponed all its activities as part of measures taken due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The associations’ consultancy activities, as well as its publishings through KaosGL.org internet newspaper and Kaos GL magazine, are continuing. The activities of the association are held over the internet due to the pandemic.
Pamukkale Local Union of the Turkish Medical Students Association (TURKMSIC), has organized a sexual orientation and gender identity webinar. On Friday, April 3rd, Kaos GL Media and Communication Program Coordinator Yıldız Tar answered questions from 20 medical students.
Yıldız Tar explained the fundamental concepts regarding sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression. After explaining how fundamental rights and freedoms of LGBTI+'s are violated from a historical perspective; Tar interactively answered many questions from medical students on various subjects from access to the right to health to constitutional equality, from "conversion therapy" to the role of medical professionals in the sex reassignment process.
Torture under the name of “conversion therapy”
Yıldız Tar addressed the issue of ‘conversion therapy’ upon a related question. Stressing that the practice called reparative therapy is in fact torture, Tar said, 'conversion therapies' are interventions aimed at changing the expression of the individual's sexual identity in order to direct them to heterosexuality by showing heterosexuality as a preferred orientation. These interventions are provided by the misconception that sees sexual identities as pathological. What's more, there is evidence that 'reparative therapies' have led to a bad impact on mental health in youth".
Tar noted that the assumption that a particular sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression is unhealthy is fundamentally flawed; "This is scientific charlatanism; and in terms of human rights, torture,".
Questions
Some of the questions Tar answered were:
*Can you talk about sexual identity, sexual orientation, and gender concepts?
*Previously, while the acronym was LGBTIQA+ but now it is LGBTIQ+, what was the reason for this change?
*There is no LGBTIQ+ inclusive clause in the equality clause of the Constitution, and this leads to LGBTIQ+ individuals to not being defined as equal citizens, what do you think about this situation?
*How are LGBTIQ+ individuals' social lives in public in Turkey? How do their landlords, store clerks, etc treat them? Do they have job opportunities?
*What kind of problems do you have when you're using healthcare services?
*Can you talk about the difference between bisexual and pansexual?
*Do you think therapies can change sexual orientation? What would you like to say about the so-called "change theories"?
*Why the notion of queer is needed? Wouldn't it harm the LGBT to throw away years of LGBT policies and to try to include a broader concept?
*What kinds of problems do LGBTIQ+ individuals face in the healthcare field?
Translation: Yiğit E. Korkmaz
Tags: human rights, health
