Gender, Sexuality, and Identity on an Istanbul Stage

• In Event: 192 - Regular Session. Culture and Identity

Abstract

This paper reports on and analyzes the LGBT Pride events in Istanbul Turkey during the summer of 2013 and beyond. The Trans and LGBT parades were bolstered by an outpouring of allies from the Gezi Park movement that was ongoing at the time of the parades. Using the insights of theorists of cosmopolitanism, this analysis contextualizes this moment as a turning point in both the visibility and growing legitimacy of the LGBTQ movement in Turkey and new cross-ethnic cultural encounters. Both the temporal and the spatial context of Istanbul as a cosmopolitan metropolis are relevant to interpreting the meanings of these new developments.

Author

• Susan C. Pearce, East Carolina University