03/03/2026 | Writer: Kaos GL
We are happy to share a brief summary of what we did in 2025 with our companions.
We have been struggling for equality and freedom in these lands for 31 years. We thank everyone who has been a part of our story, which extends from parks and house meetings to printed magazines, and from there to many paths we have walked together with our companions.
We are happy to share a brief summary of what we did in 2025 with our companions. To many more years and happy days with the slogan "The liberation of LGBTI+'s will also liberate the whole society"...
Our events
In 2025, we reached 13,817 people with a total of 359 events. In addition to these open events, we organized 159 meetings to increase our coordination with different institutions. While more than half of these events were in a digital environment, 37 percent were face-to-face.
We organized 14 percent of our events as Kaos GL, and collaborated with our stakeholders in 44 percent. The rate of events we attended as guests was 42 percent.
Institutions we collaborated with to organize events included other national and international LGBTI+ organizations, women's organizations, human rights organizations, youth organizations, refugee organizations, bar associations, labor unions, professional organizations, municipalities, culture and art institutions, media organizations, HIV organizations, student communities, and academic organizations.
In 2025, we organized events in 16 provinces. The provinces visited by Rainbow Events were as follows: Adana, Ankara, Antalya, Aydın, Bolu, Bursa, Çanakkale, Diyarbakır, Eskişehir, Hatay, Istanbul, Izmir, Kocaeli, Mersin, Muğla, Sakarya. Besides the province centers, we also had events in the Bodrum and Fethiye districts of Muğla, and the Karaburun and Selçuk districts of Izmir.
Abroad, we organized or participated in events in the USA, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Kosovo, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, and Norway.
So, what did we do at these events?
We organized workshops on LGBTI+ rights, and in panels and talks, we brought up many issues ranging from queer theory to union rights; from equality in local governments to the right to health. We were guests in university classes under the title of anti-discrimination courses, and we brought LGBTI+'s together through cultural and social events. We held workshops with lawyers, doctors, mental health professionals, social workers, teachers, and media workers. We went to the cities where refugees stay with our special events for LGBTI+ refugees.
A significant portion of our events was directed at LGBTI+ individuals and organizations. However, we did not close ourselves in; we opened up and, in order to ensure social transformation, we also organized events directed at numerous institutions, including bar associations, municipalities, public institutions, culture and arts mediators, private sector organizations, labor unions, and professional organizations.
Publishing
In the first half of 2025, in addition to the KaosGL.org internet newspaper and Kaos GL magazines, various reports, information notes, and books met their readers.
Throughout the year, we published 2255 news items, columns, and visual content on our news sites. 14 percent of our content consisted of English news (314 news items). Furthermore, we brought the world agenda to readers in Turkey with 212 translated news items. While 8 percent of our news was produced by our volunteer and freelance reporters (183 news items), 23 percent consisted of exclusive news prepared by the KaosGL.org news center (570 news items).
At the end of June, our KaosGL.org internet newspaper and social media accounts were blocked from access by a court decision. As of July, we continued broadcasting from the KaosGL1.org address. Our new Instagram account is: @kaosglhaber. Our accounts on X, including the X account we opened after the censorship, are still blocked from access.
Throughout the year, our access-blocked site KaosGL.org and our new address KaosGL1.org reached a total of 987 thousand views.
The number of engagements on our sites was a total of 3 million 103 thousand. We reached 3 million 150 thousand on Facebook, 52 million 400 thousand views on Instagram, and 9 million 358 thousand views on X.
KaosGL.org news and the works of Kaos GL Association were featured 681 times in other media organizations throughout the year. In 53 of these news items (8 percent), discriminatory expressions were used about our association and Kaos GL was targeted. On the other hand, we gave a total of 78 statements to the press throughout the year. We were guests on TV and radio programs.
6 issues of Kaos GL magazine were published and met with the readers. The themes of these issues were as follows, respectively: 200th special issue: Words and Traces, Working Life, Solidarity, Family, Anti-Gender Movement 1 and 2.
In six months, 42 distinct publications met with readers. 38 of these publications were in Turkish and 4 were in English. Information notes regarding the situations of LGBTI+'s in Syria, Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Afghanistan, and Sudan; translations of ECHR decisions, Perception Survey regarding LGBTI+'s, our annual reports regarding the situation of LGBTI+'s in the private sector and public sphere, our 2024 human rights report of LGBTI+'s, and our publications consisting of reports we submitted to international mechanisms can be accessed at kaosgldernegi.org.
We also delivered a selection of our past and current printed publications to labor unions, LGBTI+ organizations, and municipalities. We distributed a total of 3350 printed publications all over the country.
Counseling
Throughout 2025, we provided legal and psycho-social counseling 1530 times to 366 LGBTI+ refugees. 1045 of these counseling sessions were by phone, 312 by e-mail, 120 online, and 53 face-to-face. LGBTI+ refugees from 22 different countries of origin, residing in 37 different cities of Turkey, benefited from our counseling services.
Advocacy
In 2025, we had 330 distinct activities to advocate for LGBTI+ rights, apart from large-scale events.
Within the scope of our advocacy activities, we came together with national and international networks and platforms, municipalities, embassies, EU and UN institutions, public institutions, companies, judicial mechanisms, regional human rights mechanisms, international human rights mechanisms, members of parliament, and other non-governmental organizations.
Within the scope of advocacy, we made 24 right-to-information applications. Additionally, we visited officials from the aforementioned institutions 137 times. We came together with members of parliament 67 times to protect LGBTI+ rights and conveyed our agendas.
We also prepared and submitted reports to international human rights mechanisms 22 times.
Capacity building
We provided capacity building and expertise support to various institutions and individuals 735 times. Other LGBTI+ organizations benefited from this support the most, at 346 times. Besides human rights, refugee, and women's organizations, other institutions we provided support to included; municipalities, labor unions, culture and arts mediators, media organizations, and professional organizations.
Tags: human rights, media, life, lgbti
