This week saw Istanbul's LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) community hold a fashion show, to raise money for LGBTI charities and awareness into problems the community faces in Turkey.
While attitudes towards homosexuality and intersex people are changing in the conservative nation, the LGBTI community still faces discrimination.Yagiz Karahan/ReutersThe fashion show, featuring transgender models wearing outfits by transgender designers, was organised by activists.Yagiz Karahan/ReutersOne organiser told the local press that the aim of the show was to make the transgender community "an object of entertainment, not ridicule".Yagiz Karahan/ReutersIn October a Romani transgender woman, known as 'Gypsie Gül', was killed in her home.Yagiz Karahan/Reuters'Gypsie Gül' was reported to have been a local sex worker, lived in Kurtuluş, in Istanbul's central Şişli district.Yagiz Karahan/ReutersKurtuluş, in the central Şişli district of Istanbul, is one of the most tolerant neighborhoods in the city, where many transgender people have chosen to settle and live.Yagiz Karahan/ReutersAccording to Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News, members of Turkey's transgender community "live under constant threat of hate attacks and most of the murders targeting the LGBT community are left unsolved".Yagiz Karahan/ReutersThe Turkish government are attempting to improve LGBT rights, proposing laws against LGBT hate crime and discrimination.Yagiz Karahan/ReutersTurkey's government is also considering whether to constitutionally allow the recognition of same-sex marriage. Earlier this year Turkey's Supreme Court ruled that describing homosexuals as 'perverted' constitutes hate speech.Yagiz Karahan/ReutersIn August 2013, the Constitutional Reconciliation Commission, which is drafting Turkey's new constitution, agreed to provide constitutional protection against discrimination for LGBT individuals. However, this draft was later cancelled.Yagiz Karahan/Reuters
