24/02/2026 | Writer: Kaos GL
In 2025, anti LGBTI+ policies became institutionalized; hate speech spread through senior officials. Instructions issued to public institutions under the banner of the “Year of the Family,” along with religious and administrative rhetoric, created a climate that encouraged human rights violations.
Photo by: Dilara Açıkgöz / csgorselarsiv.org
Kaos GL Association has published its LGBTI+ Human Rights Report 2025. Bearing the overarching title “The Year of the Family: A Major Siege Against LGBTI+ People”, the report is the product of the association’s human rights monitoring work ongoing since 2007.
Prepared on the basis of violations reflected in the media, as well as applications submitted to Kaos GL Association and other civil society organizations it works with, the report lays bare the state of LGBTI+ rights in 2025.
The report was prepared by Kerem Dikmen, Coordinator of the Kaos GL Human Rights Program, with contributions from Defne Güzel. The data were visualized by Ecmel Deniz.
The report was made public yesterday at a launch held in Ankara at Mülkiyeliler Birliği. Sevda Karaca, Member of Parliament for Gaziantep from Labour Party (EMEP), also attended the launch.
At the event, lawyer Kerem Dikmen evaluated the year 2025 and the report’s key findings. In his remarks, Dikmen said:
“This year, LGBTI+ hostility became centered on the presidency. The Ministry of Family became the implementing ministry. Other public institutions took it upon themselves to act accordingly, Diyanet, RTÜK… As a result, we witnessed the closure of an LGBTI+ rights organization within this structure.”
LGBTI+ hostility turned into an explicit state policy
According to the report, in 2025 LGBTI+ hostility became an explicit state policy. It notes that the targeting of LGBTI+ people as “deviant,” a “scourge,” or a “threat” by the President and by elected and appointed senior public officials increased the motivation of public officials to commit violations, while reinforcing a sense of impunity among third parties. The report emphasizes that the resulting climate encouraged human rights violations.
The report underlines that hate speech that targets LGBTI+ people openly contradicts the state’s obligation to prevent discrimination. It records that regulatory and supervisory bodies systematically restricted freedom of expression and artistic freedom on the basis of LGBTI+ hostility. Accordingly, digital platforms featuring LGBTI+ inclusive content were penalized, broadcasts were censored, some broadcasters were forced to withdraw from Turkey, and artistic events were canceled or banned.
Alarm over increasing violations: Torture and ill-treatment stand out
According to the report, a total of six violations of the right to life were documented; three of these were recorded as hate motivated killings. The report emphasizes that trans people were the most affected by violations of the right to life. It also notes that, because the state does not keep official statistics on hate crimes, the data rely solely on cases reflected in the media.
The report finds a striking increase in violations of the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment and of the right to personal integrity. In this category, a total of 89 violations were documented; the number recorded in the previous year was 51. The report states that these violations were largely linked to the exercise of the right to peaceful assembly and demonstration.
Under the right to liberty, the report documents a total of 313 violations in 2025, an increase of approximately two and a half times compared to the previous year. Most violations consisted of detention procedures; it was recorded that a total of 299 detention decisions were issued, 256 on record and 43 off the record, against individuals for whom there was no risk of absconding.
Systematic attacks on privacy and freedom of movement
The report notes a significant increase in violations of the right to private life in 2025. While 16 violations were reported in 2024, 67 violations were documented in 2025. This increase stemmed not from media monitoring but from applications submitted to Kaos GL through civil society channels. A substantial portion of these violations resulted from obstruction of trans people’s access to hormone therapy.
Under freedom of movement, the report documents 61 violations. Most involved travel bans imposed despite the absence of the legal conditions required for pretrial detention.
A ban on the rainbow: Violations of freedom of expression more than doubled
According to the report, a total of 195 violations were documented under freedom of expression in 2025. When violations of freedom of assembly and the right to information are added, the total number of violations in the field of freedom of expression increased from 216 in the previous year to 540.
The report highlights bans on rainbow colors and on LGBTI+ and trans flags as a major source of violations. It notes the growing prevalence of practices such as banning these symbols, preventing participation in public events, and unlawfully seizing visual materials.
Violence against peaceful actions, lawsuits against organizing
The report documents 336 violations of the right to assembly in 2025, marking a serious increase compared to previous years. General and event specific bans, violent police attacks on peaceful gatherings, detentions, arrests, judicial control measures imposed on participants, and criminal cases brought against them are cited as the main reasons for this increase.
Under the right to association, 40 violations were reported. The report notes that, for the first time in many years in Turkey, an LGBTI+ association was closed, and that criminal cases were opened against 11 of its members on the grounds of their human rights advocacy.
Shrinking fundamental rights: A grim picture in health, education, and housing
According to the report, a total of 21 violations of the right to health were documented in 2025. The main cause was identified as the implementation of policy changes that made it more difficult for trans people to access hormone therapy.
In the field of education, 52 violations were reported. The report states that restrictions imposed by university rectorates on students’ extracurricular activities were the primary source of these violations. It further emphasizes that the Ministry of National Education’s LGBTI+ hostile policies and hate speech created a structural environment that encouraged violations in education.
Under the right to housing, 21 violations were documented. Especially in Istanbul, intensified practices of sealing or closing homes were reported to obstruct access to housing for trans women engaged in sex work. The report also highlights violations in state dormitories, evictions, forced removals, and coercion to leave housing.
Recommendations
Some of the recommendations included in the report are as follows:
To the Grand National Assembly of Turkey:
- Reject legislative proposals that contravene Article 10 of the Constitution. Amend the Law on the Establishment of the Human Rights and Equality Institution of Turkey (TİHEK) and Article 122 of the Turkish Penal Code accordingly.
- Implement the recommendations of the international community (UN Human Rights Committee, Committee Against Torture, Universal Periodic Review, Council of Europe bodies).
- Ratify Protocol No. 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights on the general prohibition of discrimination, signed by the Republic of Turkey on April 18, 2001.
- Differentiate penalties for crimes committed with a hate motive so that they are higher than those for the basic forms of the same offenses.
- Amend Article 40 of the Turkish Civil Code, which has become an obstacle to the legal recognition of gender and mandates interference with bodily integrity and reproductive capacity, so as to bring it into line with human rights standards, and guarantee a declaration based system.
To the Presidency:
- Put an end to hate speech produced by public authorities; establish enforceable rules with sanctions for all public officials, including ministers and senior bureaucrats.
- Immediately withdraw exclusionary directives targeting LGBTI+ people that have been sent to public institutions.
- Remove obstacles to the right to assembly and demonstration that have been effectively eliminated through governorships.
- Develop a binding action plan against arbitrary practices by law enforcement that target LGBTI+ existence, including torture and ill-treatment.
- Establish special complaint and monitoring mechanisms within law enforcement and the judiciary to address discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
- Regularly record, publicly share, and unequivocally condemn hate speech and hate acts against LGBTI+ people.
- Re-enact the Istanbul Convention and return to international obligations in combating gender based violence.
To international stakeholders:
- Ensure effective and sustained follow up of calls made by the High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding systematic violations of LGBTI+ rights in Turkey.
- Publicly and consistently condemn hate speech produced by Turkish authorities.
- Strengthen monitoring mechanisms to ensure the effective implementation of all European Court of Human Rights judgments concerning LGBTI+ rights by member states.
- Make LGBTI+ rights a priority agenda item in the monitoring processes of the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly, and deepen data and assessments in this area.
- Ensure that Council of Europe standards on LGBTI+ rights are taken as the basis for all forms of dialogue, joint programs, and training activities conducted with Turkey.
Tags: human rights, media, arts and culture, life, education, family, trans, lgbti
