25/09/2025 | Writer: Kaos GL
Speaking at a side event of the 80th UN General Assembly, Emine Erdoğan targeted LGBTI+ people by referring to “de-gendering” and “global threats.”
President and AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s wife, Emine Erdoğan, also joined the race to target LGBTI+ people. She spoke at a side event themed “Towards Better Together: Global Solidarity Starting with the Family”, hosted by the Ministry of Family and Social Services at the UN Headquarters, on the margins of the 80th United Nations (UN) General Assembly.
The event, which began with a promotional video prepared by the Ministry of Family and Social Services, featured Erdoğan claiming that the most sacred building block of humanity is the family, and that steps must be taken to protect the family institution.
The event was attended by Türkiye’s Minister of Family and Social Services Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş, Qatar’s Minister of Social Development and Family Buthaina bint Ali Al Jabr Al Nuaimi, Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto, Sierra Leone’s Minister of Gender and Children’s Affairs Isata Mahoi, Somalia’s Minister of Family Khadija Al-Makhzoumi, Nigeria’s Minister of Women’s Affairs Imaan Sulaiman Ibrahim, Serbia’s Minister for Gender Equality and Prevention of Violence Against Women Tatjana Macura, Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Maria Zabolotskaya, and Bethany Kozma, Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Targeting LGBTI+ people under the guise of “de-gendering”
In her speech, Erdoğan said, “The family is under siege,” and targeted LGBTI+ people by referring to “de-gendering” and “global threats”:
“Global threats such as the climate crisis, wars, the popular culture industry, and de-gendering deeply shake the institution of the family. Values that enrich the human inner world and spiritual competence are being replaced by the materialist values of consumer culture. All this rapidly drags us into a future world where a post-family reality will prevail. Once, extended families lived under the same roof for generations, but this has long given way to the nuclear family. More recently, the number of single-parent families is on the rise.”
Emine Erdoğan: “The UN should adopt family strengthening as a standalone policy”
Erdoğan reminded the audience that Türkiye is a member of the UN Group of Friends of the Family (GoFF) and said:
“As Türkiye, we believe that the road to peace, justice, and shared prosperity passes through the family. We think approaches in international politics that prioritize the family will generate transformative power from local to global. As a member of the UN Group of Friends of the Family, we have always supported efforts to bring the family to the forefront of the international agenda, and we continue to do so. However, these efforts must be advanced further, and the United Nations should adopt the strengthening of the family as a policy in its own right. In this regard, a special body should be established within the UN to coordinate efforts on strengthening the family. Because the structure and quality of the family are harbingers of humanity’s future.”
Erdoğan announced Türkiye’s GoFF membership in 2024
On 24 September 2024, at the 79th UN General Assembly, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also targeted LGBTI+ people by using the term “de-gendering” and announced that Türkiye had joined the UN Group of Friends of the Family.
The Group of Friends of the Family, which claims to “protect and promote the family in UN policies and develop family-oriented policies in development strategies,” describes itself as follows:
“The Group of Friends of the Family (GoFF) is a coalition of UN Member States affirming that the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State. GoFF believes that genuine and effective sustainable development cannot be achieved without the family.”
Among the group’s stated goals are emphasizing that “the family is a reality recognized by all cultures, religions, and moral traditions, that it is the natural and fundamental unit of society, and that it fulfills a protective role by providing a nurturing environment for holistic human development.”
Although the group does not explicitly mention LGBTI+ people, its rhetoric about “protecting and mainstreaming the family” has been used to promote family-centered narratives. In addition, several international anti-abortion and anti-LGBTI+ civil society organizations support the Group of Friends of the Family.
Tags: human rights, women, family, lgbti
