20/02/2026 | Writer: Kaos GL
At Kaos GL UK’s panel at the London School of Economics, rising anti-LGBTI+ policies in Türkiye and the UK will be examined from a comparative perspective, with a focus on the potential impacts on rights of draft judicial packages containing anti-LGBTI+ regulations.
Kaos GL UK, the new organisational structure of Kaos GL in the United Kingdom, has been established. The organisation is holding its first academic-political event, aimed at strengthening transnational solidarity and advocacy work, at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). The panel will address, from a comparative perspective, the anti-LGBTI+ discourses and policies that have gained momentum in recent years in Türkiye and the United Kingdom.
The event aims to discuss the legal, political, and social consequences of these policies and to make visible transnational fields of joint struggle. The starting point of the panel is the increasingly explicit reconstruction of repression against LGBTI+ people in Türkiye through legal and institutional arrangements.
The event will take place at LSE on 27 February between 14:00–15:30.
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The draft law publicly referred to as the “11th Judicial Package” will also be discussed at the panel. In the event announcement, it was noted that the drafts containing anti-LGBTI+ provisions include clauses that directly target LGBTI+ people, could criminalise the public visibility of identities, and would severely restrict access to gender-affirming processes. It was emphasised that this initiative constitutes the third comprehensive legislative preparation brought to the agenda within the past year.
It was also stated that these developments would be addressed within a broader political context that has persisted since 2015. Practices such as bans on Pride Marches, interventions against peaceful assemblies, the obstruction of LGBTI+ events, and especially the targeting of trans people will be evaluated as continuing elements of this context.
The sessions included in the panel are as follows:
The sessions in the panel, which will be moderated by Dr. Hakan Sandal-Wilson from the Department of Gender Studies at LSE, are as follows:
Dr Elif Ceylan Özsoy (Loughborough University, Faculty of Law) Anti-LGBTI+ Discourses and Legal Approaches in Türkiye and the United Kingdom
Umut Güner & Metin Uzun (Kaos GL) The Historical Trajectory of the LGBTI+ Movement in Türkiye: Current Challenges, Needs, and Political Priorities
Dr.Oya Aydın Attorney-at-Law (Kaos GL) Freedom of Thought, Expression, and Association of LGBTI+ People in Türkiye: The Legal Struggle from the Kaos GL “Pornography” Case to the Process of Withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention
Tags: human rights, media, life, lgbti
