" This interview has been held with an Lgbt ally who studied at Atatürk University."
- How is this different in another country? How is it similar?
When we look up the modern and the developed countries, they are respectful LGBTQ communities while our country, there is an excessive disgust, condemnation or prohibition because they deal with every issue on religion. When it comes to similarities, I think there are no similarities. There are very few similarities, if any, but they are never enough for people’s hopes.
- Is it easy to identify someone as gay, straight or lesbian? Why or why not?
In fact this is a stereotyped pattern in people’s eyes. In other words, they are stigmatized into the mold without asking anything because of the speech, movement, clothing, environment, etc. of the other person. We cannot distinguish it. Since a woman’s hair is short or her dress is short or her dress is more masculine she cannot become a lesbian, and you cannot/shouldn’t create such a judgement anyway.
- How safe do you think your university is for LGBT students? How do you know?
Of course, the university I am studying is not a place who cannot lean towards such situations because of the geographical conditions and education level. Yes, if asked if there are people lean towards LGBT members, but of course this means very few compared to the general. Although the university is a place where you can come with certain trainings, people come here with some stereotyped ideas, and no matter how they do not change, they do not want to change them.
- Do you think it is important to be an ally to LGBT students?
Of course we are not different from you, straight people. We are human beings, you should notice this. You should not approach any person with prejudice, nobody should approach. If you approach people with love, they will approach you in the same way. People always think that if I treat LGBT students that people think that they will have different goals but there is nothing like that. Do not approach us with prejudice because this is not a true attitude.
- In Turkey/your university, which gender identities seem natural or acceptable? Which do not? How can you tell?
Muslims make up the majority of people in Turkey. That’s why people only accept heterosexual people. Bisexual people are already able to camouflage themselves easily. There is no problem for them. Guys and transgender people have been excluded from the society for years, battered and never accepted. When you look at it, people will not accept it unless they change their mindset. If we come to lesbian people, they are accepted in a certain part of our society while a certain part hates them, such as gays and transsexuals.
- As we see from this answers, I can say that we do not respect LGBTQ issues because of different stereotypes. In our country, generally almost all people have bias about such issues. Another factor is that religion, our people are generally Muslims; therefore, they do not respect LGBTQ members, these factors block understanding this matter.