15/01/2026 | Writer: Kaos GL
TRT Director General Mehmed Zahid Sobacı announced on January 13 via his social media account that the documentary will be broadcast. Reactions followed, with critics saying, “This is a major distortion and a lie.”
The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) Director General Mehmed Zahid Sobacı shared a trailer on social media for “Rainbow Fascism,” a documentary set to air on TRT’s digital streaming platform tabii.
The hate-filled documentary depicts a glass-walled child’s bedroom entered by an elephant with a rainbow-colored hose. The elephant is shown destroying the room.
Sobacı’s social media post sharing the trailer read as follows:
“Do you hear it? These are the footsteps of fascism… We are exposing an ideological siege that has declared war on the family institution and placed our children and values in the crosshairs.”
Following the release of the trailer, criticism of the documentary quickly mounted. We have compiled the backlash against the documentary for Kaos GL readers:
Yıldız Tar: This documentary, which claims that the family is made of glass, insults family values. They are doing propaganda against the public with the public’s money. If they are looking for somewhere to waste resources, they should turn and look at the real problems of the people. When the country is in the middle of an economic crisis, what is TRT doing? They take the money that comes out of our pockets, our taxes, and spend it on creating imaginary enemies and stoking hatred.
Atilla Dirim: This is a major distortion and a lie. LGBTI+ existence imposes nothing on anyone; gender identity and sexual orientation are not things that can be changed through imposition, persuasion, or encouragement. On the contrary, heteronormativity is imposed on LGBTI+ people. What you are doing is channeling the anger caused by the current economic collapse, and the social breakdown that follows it, elsewhere. And what did you want from that elephant? At least leave the animals alone!
Burcu Karakaş: That someone who has been appointed to a professorship in political science and public administration does not know what fascism is undoubtedly raises serious questions about the education system in this country.
İrfan Değirmenci: An elderly pensioner who could not pay his rent was evicted and burned to death today in the car he took shelter in to avoid freezing. This is the cold, hard reality that 25 years of political power cannot cover up. Redirecting the anger of poor people away from the system and those in power who caused their poverty and toward a neighbor constructed as an object of hatred is fascism itself, and it has no color; it is pitch black.
“Hatred against LGBTI+ people is becoming increasingly frightening”
Murat Meriç: Hatred against LGBTI+ people is heading toward an increasingly frightening place. As if othering those who want to live freely were not enough, they are now openly targeting them. And this is being done by the state broadcaster, no less. In that case, which one is fascism?
Emek Erez: It’s such an environment that they turn everything upside down, reinvent it, empty everything of meaning, create an imaginary universe, and spread hatred. It’s like the fascism of fascism of fascism, I can’t even put it into words. Everything is so absurd. In fact, let me say it one more time: Everything is so absurd.
Esin Davutoğlu Şenol: To be filled with fascist, racist, and sexist violence is an individual’s own hell. That such a person is at the head of a national institution funded by our taxes is our catastrophe. Subjecting people to lynching and violence is a hate crime.
Direnişin Renkleri: A trailer has been released for the LGBTI+phobic documentary “Rainbow Fascism”, set to air on TRT’s digital platform TABİİ. Hate crimes have been committed by the state for years. In the trailer, an elephant is used to represent LGBTI+ people, so let us say this clearly: The elephant that smashes the glass against the violence of the “sacred family” is one of us. It is not the rainbow but your power that is fascist. We will defend our lives against hatred!
“We will tear down the so called sacred family”
Demir Leblebi: The documentary “Rainbow Fascism”, to be aired on TABİİ, is committing an explicit hate crime. We reject the targeting of our existences through the rhetoric of the “sacred family” and the attempt to manufacture artificial hatred against LGBTIQ+ people. We owe a promise to Hande Kader and Ahmet Yıldız: Despite hatred, we will keep life going; we will tear down the so called “sacred family” that kills Narin*.”
Translation note for Narin*: Narin Güran is the name of an eight year old girl who was killed by her family in Turkey’s Diyarbakır province.
Ankara Rainbow Families Association (GALADER): The so called “documentary” titled Rainbow Fascism, announced to be broadcast on TRT’s digital streaming platform tabii, is a hate-driven production. Associating our children’s existence and their fundamental rights and freedoms with a horrific concept such as “fascism” deeply upsets and alarms us as LGBTI+ families. We call on TRT to reverse this mistake and to categorically refrain from airing this production.
The Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party (DSİP): TRT must not broadcast this program that spreads hatred against LGBTI+ people. We call on all democratic segments of the public to take a stand on this issue, to protest TRT, and to do everything in their power to ensure that this program is not aired.
LISTAG (Families and Friends of LGBTIs in Turkey): For a public service broadcaster to prepare to air content that portrays LGBTI+ people and their families as a threat is clearly contrary to the rule of law, the principle of equality, and families’ right to live in safety. It is of vital importance for LGBTI+ families and their loved ones to know and be able to exercise their legal rights. For this reason, we call on everyone to make use of their legal rights.
DEM Party MP Özgül Saki: Özgül Saki, DEM Party MP for Istanbul, stated that the language and visual narrative used in the documentary in question target LGBTI+ people and produce a discriminatory and stigmatizing discourse that frames them as a societal threat. Saki said that this approach clearly violates the constitutional principle of equality, human rights, and the obligation of public broadcasting to remain impartial.
Tags: human rights, women, media, arts and culture, life, family, trans, lgbti
