05/03/2020 | Writer: Aslı Alpar
Trans activists gathered at the Trans Therapy Group told kaosGL.org about the Trans Istanbul Initiative they founded.
Trans activists gathered to remove the barriers to fundamental rights and freedoms in the Trans Therapy Group, told about the Trans İstanbul İnitiative (Transist) that they have founded to kaosGL.org.
The Initiative, which started its work by organizing socio-cultural events, mentioned the obstacles before the organization and listed their goals.
Let's hear it from Transist...
How did the idea of creating the Trans Istanbul Initiative come about?
We need to increase trans visibility and strengthen trans organization, and based on this requirement, we asked ourselves how can we increase the areas of empowerment where trans people feel safe and can coexist.
Then we took a step to establish an organization that consists of transgenders, understand the needs of transgenders and focused on transgenders in İstanbul and decided to establish an initiative to organize socio-cultural events for transgenders in the first place. We. Our dream is to become an association.
“If we do not get together, we suffer worse psychologic effects”
Are you able to meet regularly?
We are a very young organization and our numbers are still a few. We aim to hold regular meetings. So far, we held a number of meetings in a short period, where we discussed our focus.
In the coming days, we are planning to hold a meet-and-greet meeting. But we are not there yet…
Why?
A few of our friends, unfortunately, had to leave the team because of personal problems. I think the biggest reason for the lack of strong trans organizations in Turkey is this, that’s why we can't organize easily like a snowball rolling down the hill. There are so many issues in our lives that keep us, that most of our energy is getting spent with them, and we can't get to add strength to such organizations. It creates a vicious cycle, and that snowball can't get bigger for that reason.
Whether it's for organizing or just socializing, if we can't get together, we're going to get into a worse psychological state. Therefore, our first priority now will be to organize a meeting event to strengthen the team as soon as possible.
“We aim to bring solutions to the existences and needs of transgenders”
How do you designate the agenda of your meetings?
Our agenda is set by the things that we want to accomplish as an initiative, by our aims. For example, during our founding process, issues such as the content of our organization's declaration statement, the logo design were our agenda.
At this stage, within the framework of the objectives of the initiative, issues like what we can do, what should be our next event, are on our agenda. We choose to move forward with small steps as an initiative, for example we are targeting to hold an event per month and we make our plans accordingly.
What are your aims?
First of all, as Transist, we would like to organize various socio-cultural activities, workshops, seminars for transgenders. We want to create areas where transgenders gather, and of course, we want to increase our numbers, to get stronger. Then we want to be an organization that produces quality resources in order to create auxiliary opportunities, an organization that creates supportive and informative programs in order to bring concrete suggestions and solutions to trans existence and needs in various fields.
About your trans therapy group; what has it accomplished so far, what did getting together make you feel?
The therapy group offers psychosocial support for trans people with a specific framework and purpose, but it also creates a space where trans people can get together. Here, transgenders share experiences with each other, listen to each other,and support each other. As members of the initiative who met in the therapy group and later came together for the same purpose, it gives us strength and hope.
Apart from the Therapy Group, we held a film screening in January. In addition, the T-Talk WhatsApp group, which includes transgenders living in many different cities of Turkey, acts as a lifeline, especially for transgenders who do not have the opportunity to achieve any peer solidarity or psychosocial support. From there they have the opportunity to learn, share experiences and get peer support. Our Trans Chats event, which is the occasion of the formation of the T-Talk Group, will also continue.
You can contact Transist from here.
Translation: Yiğit E. Korkmaz
Tags: human rights
