ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Caner Hazar analyzes LGBTQ activism in Turkey. He explains how civil society in Turkey has been shaped by multiple historical changes in the economic and political spheres, and forces such as globalization and modernization. Drawing from interviews with activists and participant observation of LGBTQ activism, Hazar analyzes how LGBTQ activism in Turkey in the 21st century has been impacted by economic, political, social, and cultural history. He argues that LGBTQ issues and people were invisible and oppressed under both a secular government and under the more religious authoritarian regime, in different ways and for different reasons that reflected the particular political coalitions of the time. This persistent invisibility and oppression under such varying and complex conditions cannot be understood through Eurocentric stereotypes that construct secularist as “modern” and free and believe that public religion (including Islam) are backward and oppressive.
