At the end of last month, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presented a‘Democracy reform package’, including constitutional reforms, an anti-discrimination bill and a proposal for an amendment to hate crime and hate speech law. Unfortunately, the package leaves out measures that would protect LGBT people from violence and discrimination.

Sexual orientation and gender identity are currently excluded from equality provisions in the constitution. In August, parliamentarians from the CHP and BDP parties introduced a proposal to add sexual orientation to the list, but the ruling AKP party opposed the proposal. The presentation by Erdoğan still excludes sexual orientation.

The proposal for amendments to the hate crime and hate speech law also failed to include sexual orientation and gender identity as grounds to be protected.

Read more at www.lgbt-ep.eu the official website of European Parliament’s Intergroup on LGBT Rights