Joint statement by LGBTI+ groups against ban on İstanbul Pride Week

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LGBTI+ groups have released a joint statement in the face of the ban on İstanbul Pride Week.

Sub-governors of Kadıköy and Beyoğlu districts, where the events were planned to take place, on Monday (June 20) imposed a ban on all events related to the Pride Week.

The bans are against the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the statement said. The state is responsible for rights of LGBTI+s, including the right to hold a gathering, it said.

"We refuse to be ashamed"

The statement included the following:

"We know that these bans target our existence that we are proud of, our struggle that we have brought to this point, and our progress in ensuring constitutional and social equality.

"We are expected to be ashamed of our existence that we honorably embrace, lose the solidarity we have built, leave the spaces we have won and step back from our righteous struggle.

"As the LGBTI+ associations, we openly declare: We refuse to be ashamed, forgotten, to abandon, lose, and take a step back. We do not consent to our history, present and future being taken away from us with hate speech, targeting, bans and threats."

The following groups signed the statement: 17 Mayıs Association, 18 Haziran LGBTİ+ Solidarity Association, Gökkuşağı Aileleri Association (GALADER), Genç LGBTİ+ Association, HEVİ LGBTİ+ Association, Kaos GL Association, Kırmızı Şemsiye Association, Lambdaistanbul LGBTİ+ Solidarity Association, LGBTİ+ Families and Loved Ones Association (LİSTAG), Muamma LGBTİ+ Association, Özgür Renkler Association, Pembe Hayat LGBTİ+ Solidarity Association, Social Policy, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association (SPoD), ÜniKuir Association. (MD/TY/VK)