18/05/2026 | Writer: Kaos GL
At the conference organized by Kaos GL Association and May 17 Association, LGBTI+ labor experiences were discussed across a wide range of issues, from the economic crisis to discrimination in working life, from trade union struggles to pressure in the public sector; speakers drew attention to “compulsory concealment,” impoverishment, and precarity.
At the Power of Labor Conference organized in Ankara by the associations May 17 Association and Kaos GL Association; economic crisis, poverty, discrimination in working life, and union struggle were discussed through the experiences of LGBTI+ people. Academics, social workers, trade unionists, and activists addressed how economic inequalities deepen for LGBTI+ people, strategies of concealment in working life, and increasing pressure in the public sector. Doctor Larin Kayataş, who has twice been banned from practicing medicine, also shared her experiences at the conference.
“The cycle of poverty operates more harshly for LGBTI+ people”
Opening the conference, Yıldız Tar said that the system of economic exploitation produces heavier consequences for LGBTI+ people, adding: “Poverty leads to discrimination, and discrimination causes poverty.”
Speaking at the first panel titled “Economic Crisis, Poverty, and Their Impact on LGBTI+ People,” academic Emel Memiş emphasized that crises are not natural phenomena but political processes. Memiş said, “Crises and poverty are produced by human hands; they are inherent to the capitalist patriarchal system we live in.”
Stating that Türkiye is going through a period of multiple crises, Memiş said, “The economic crisis does not remain merely an economic crisis; it permeates every aspect of social life.” Referring to the work of Kaos GL Association and May 17 Association, Memiş added, “The poverty protection system is closed off to those subjected to discrimination. The cycle of poverty operates more harshly for LGBTI+ people.”
“Economic inequality isolates LGBTI+ people”
Journalist Yıldız Tar said that family-centered social policies have gained strength alongside the economic crisis. “Economic inequality impoverishes and isolates LGBTI+ people,” Tar said, adding that anti-LGBTI+ policies have intensified since the pandemic alongside a security-oriented understanding of the state.
Tar continued: “The nuclear family needs to be strengthened in order to reproduce children as cheap labor. Because LGBTI+ people fall outside this mechanism, they are targeted.”
Social worker Elif Topçu also said that LGBTI+ people are increasingly applying for support due to housing and financial needs. Topçu stated, “Poverty restricts a person’s access to basic resources. A person who cannot access basic resources cannot participate in social life and becomes subjected to social exclusion.”
“The most common strategy among LGBTI+ employees is concealing their identity”
The conference’s second panel was held under the title “Discrimination in Working Life and the Experiences of LGBTI+ People.” Academic Reyda Ergün said that the most common method LGBTI+ people use to cope with discrimination in working life is “not disclosing their identity.”
“There is a compulsory strategy of concealment here,” Ergün said, noting that this also makes data collection more difficult. Ergün added, “In the private sector, two out of every three LGBTI+ employees have either experienced discrimination or believe they have not experienced discrimination because their identity is not openly known. In the public sector, this rate is even higher.”
Ergün also stated that LGBTI+ public employees are exposed to more hate speech than those in the private sector, saying, “The inability to exist openly in working life is itself an ongoing form of discrimination.”
“There is a cost to hiding”
Social worker Umut Güner said that in the past, LGBTI+ people were even forced to shape their career plans around the necessity of hiding their identities. Güner said, “Because LGBTI+ people did not want to return home after university, they were forced to work in low-status jobs and outside their professions.”
Güner also stated that the sexist division of labor within unions themselves can exclude LGBTI+ people, adding, “Even the people we organize alongside do not see our needs.”
“There is a cost to hiding,” Güner said. “You are forced to construct another reality within your own life.”
Larin Kayataş: “It is not the Ministry’s duty to scrutinize my life”
The final speaker of the panel, doctor Larin Kayataş, spoke about the process of being banned from practicing medicine for a second time. Kayataş said, “The punishments imposed on me by the Ministry of Health are a warning directed at all LGBTI+ people.”
“Saying it was not enough to take away a person’s profession, they even tried to imprison me,” Kayataş continued:
“At the end of the day, the Ministry of Health is a state institution. It is not the Ministry’s duty to scrutinize every detail of a doctor’s life.”
Kayataş also said that she had been excluded in the private sector because of her trans identity, adding, “The Ministry of Health prepared a ten-month report for a single doctor.”
“A union is not a state institution; a union exists if we exist”
The conference’s final panel focused on trade union struggle and LGBTI+ rights. Cihan Hüroğlu, responsible for the Sosyal-İş Labor and Rights Organizations/NGO Workers Commission, said, “A union is a form of self-organization. A union is not a state institution; a union exists if we exist.”
Döne Gevher, Women’s Secretary of KESK, stated that unions should become safe spaces for LGBTI+ people, saying, “LGBTI+ people must be involved in policy-making processes within unions.”
Independent researcher Remzi Altunpolat also drew attention to the relationship between heterosexism and the labor regime. Altunpolat said, “Heterosexism itself is one of the social mechanisms that enables the organization of labor.”
Tags: human rights, women, media, life, education, labour, family, lgbti
