Ahmet Yildiz – The first gay honor killing in Turkey?
Ahmet Yildiz was a gorgeous 26 year old physics student from Istanbul, Turkey. He was on the fast track toward large scale success in his field, as evidenced by the information on his Wiki page.
He was also gay.
I say was because Ahmet was murdered when he left a cafe near the Bosphorus Strait a few days ago. After being shot he tried to get away from his attackers but died in the hospital after losing control and crashing his car before he could get help.
According to his friends, Ahmet Yildiz was the victim of an honor killing.
Ahmet was a member of the gay rights group Lambda Istanbul, that was closed down earlier this year by the government of Turkey for “immoral” behavior.
Stories like this serve only to remind me that for as far as we have come as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, we are still at risk each and every day just for being who we are. The more we secure a place in the world, the more people will try to secure our place in the cemetery.
Hatred and bigotry run strong through the veins of many, and it will always be so. Jesse Jackson gets caught on a hot microphone saying that he wanted to cut Barak Obama’s nuts off for talking down to black people and in the same conversation uses the word nigger.
Let me be absolutely clear at this point – I hate the word. Living in the south it is one that I hear all too often and there is no positive connotation whatsoever, no matter who it is that is talking. My point is that Jackson was complaining about Obama “talking down to black people” and then turned around and said that horrible word that is the quintessential example of talking down to black people.
It isn’t any different than gay people embracing and using terms like “queer”, “fag”, “fudge packer”, etc., I guess. Personally I don’t like any of them.
All I know right now is that yet another young, promising gay guy is now dead from what appears to be a hate crime and it pisses me off that we are still too hung up in this country on somebody using a bad word to even notice.
You want to know the impact Ahmet had on his field of study? Do a Google image search for his name and you’ll see photo after photo of him accepting awards for his work. Do the same for Jesse Jackson. All you’ll find is photo after photo of him saying the same shit he’s been spouting since he started riding the coat tails of real civil rights pioneers.
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:12 am
It’s interesting to me that you don’t like the terms fag or queer - and that makes me realize that I never really thought of those words as totally derrogatory - more like they had been reclaimed by the gay community, much like the N word was by the black community. And that makes me realize that I was sloppy in my reasoning. I *hate* the N word. I don’t tolerate it being used by really anyone - though I can let it go if the person using it actually is black. So much as to do with intent, don’t you think?
I know I’m rambling, but I figured you should know that you made me start to think.
July 22nd, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I honestly think that it’s a misnomer to really think of the N word as “reclaimed”. I’ve had conversations, or seen writings from bloggers of color, about this very topic, and the conclusion seems to be this– the word itself is hateful, but sometimes is used between people whose relationship is viewed as stronger than the hatefulness in the word.
“Queer” is a term, however, that seems to have shifted meaning somewhat, as active attempts at reclaiming it have resulted in departments of gay studies becoming departments of “queer studies”.
But it’s funny to even talk about words in the comment, because this is about someone being killed and we’re discussing terminology.
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Well Said.
July 23rd, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Even if he hadn’t been such a smart and positive person, this would have been a tragedy; the fact that he was also such a valuable member of his community compounds the tragedy.
Ahmet was a member of the gay rights group Lambda Istanbul, that was closed down earlier this year by the government of Turkey for “immoral” behavior.
This is a country that is being considered for EU membership, and who, according to many sources, has made “major improvements in human rights.” I just don’t see it. It angers me that the EU will say that a country must improve their human rights situation to be able to join, but then ignore a breach of human freedom like this. I’ve been able to find no comment, no reaction by any EU parliament member to Lambda’s closure.
July 26th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
It seems clear to me that the photos are not of the same man. Is it possible that the two men shown here share the same name and nothing else in common?
July 27th, 2008 at 8:30 am
There are several years difference between the photos. They are the same man.