There are politicians in Europe who are openly gay and have served as prime ministers, ministers, and party leaders. Rob Jetten, Xavier Bettel, and Gabriel Attal are among them. They speak about LGBTI+ rights, embrace the gains of the struggle for equality, and invoke the history and legacy of that struggle.
But how many of these politicians have we heard speak out about what LGBTI+ people are experiencing in Turkey?
Since 12 September, under the name “My Family Is Safe,” LGBTI+ associations have been raided, homes have been searched, and people have been detained and arrested. Associations and organizations working on HIV have also become targets of investigations, while their websites and social media accounts have been blocked. Under the rhetoric of “protecting the family and children,” LGBTI+ existence is increasingly being framed as a matter of security and criminality.
Just a week ago, Rob Jetten visited the Stonewall Inn and spoke about the legacy of the LGBTI+ freedom struggle. Around the same time, people in Turkey were being sent to prison for organizing in defense of LGBTI+ rights.
Moreover, only last July, Jetten was in Ankara for the NATO Summit. As he discussed cooperation with Turkey ranging from security to the defense industry, we did not hear a clear word from him about the increasingly severe pressure being placed on LGBTI+ people in the same country.
It is also important to acknowledge the voices of solidarity coming from Europe. Following the operations, ambassadors and special representatives responsible for human rights and LGBTI+ rights from Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland issued a joint statement expressing solidarity with LGBTI+ people in Turkey and calling for respect for the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association, and peaceful assembly.
In the United Kingdom, under the leadership of Turkish-born Labour MP Feryal Clark, 52 parliamentarians—most of them Labour MPs—also sent a letter to their government on 15 September, calling for the operations to be publicly condemned, urgent action to be taken with Ankara, the Turkish ambassador to be summoned, and the safety of British citizens and dual nationals to be reviewed.
On 1 October, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in a resolution it adopted, also called on Turkey to end the pressure on LGBTI+ people and human rights defenders, to immediately release those detained because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or human rights advocacy activities, and to lift the access bans. It explicitly rejected the use of “protecting the family” rhetoric to justify attacks on LGBTI+ people.
These are valuable initiatives of solidarity. But their existence makes the responsibility of governments and politicians at the highest levels even more evident. What concrete steps are these calls from parliamentarians and human rights representatives producing in the relations their governments maintain with Turkey? Where do politicians such as Jetten, Bettel, and Attal, who publicly embrace the struggle for equality, place the persecution of LGBTI+ people in Turkey on their own political agendas?
The issue is not merely a matter of the personal sensitivity of a few politicians. Do the Labour Party, Democrats 66, Renaissance, Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), and Europe’s other liberal, social democratic, and centrist parties genuinely regard LGBTI+ rights as a universal human rights issue—or do those rights begin and end at the borders of their own countries?
Defending LGBTI+ rights entails political responsibilities that go beyond waving a rainbow flag during Pride. If you speak of equality in your own country while remaining silent as LGBTI+ associations are raided, activists are arrested, and LGBTI+ existence is criminalized as a “threat to the family and children” in another country, there is a serious political inconsistency.
That silence becomes even more striking when you sit side by side with Turkey at tables of defense, security, trade, and diplomacy. When human rights are removed from the agenda in favor of the calculations dictated by these relationships, the credibility of your rhetoric on equality also erodes.
Statements of solidarity must have a political counterpart. The release of activists, an end to the pressure on associations, and the lifting of access bans must become concrete and persistent demands in talks with Turkey.
Solidarity is tested when it requires you to make concessions from your diplomatic comfort and political interests.
Claiming the legacy of Stonewall is not about having your photograph taken at the Stonewall Inn. That legacy requires speaking out, openly condemning persecution, and taking action when people fighting for the same rights are arrested elsewhere in the world. Commitment to that legacy is measured by how firmly you stand behind the words you speak in the name of equality when you sit at the diplomatic table.
Text by Remzi Antunpolat – Edited by Barkın K.
