Demet Demir

Demet Demir (born March 12, 1961) is a Turkish LGBT activist. She was awarded the Felipa de Souza Award in 1997 for her activism.

Biography Demir was born in Yalova on March 12, 1961. After her parents divorced, she and her sister moved to Istanbul when Demir was five. Demir was assigned male at birth, but discovered her trans identity around the age of 17, on reading about Bülent Ersoy. Her subsequent meetings with similar people at Taksim Gezi Park and nearby nightclubs, which were attended LGBT people, reinforced her preferences. All throughout, she used to hide her trans-sexuality to gain acceptance within the political movement. She thus became the first person to qualify as an Amnesty prisoner of conscience and thereafter, Amnesty International included homosexuality on their list of political crimes. In 1996, she underwent a sex reassignment surgery to get a woman identity card and subsequently freelanced at workshops and press studios, before joining a company to avail of future retirement benefits. Demir was arrested and physically abused on 12 July 1997, when she tried to stop police from beating up a girl who was selling handkerchiefs made by transgender people to earn a livelihood outside of prostitution. Demir had enough of being harassed for her activism and subsequently sued the Beyoğlu District Police Bureau. The case was repeatedly postponed before the court ruled in her favor in 2003 and awarded a 21-year sentence against Ulusoy, which was immediately vacated by the government under an amnesty provision.

In 1999, Demir became a candidate at the Beyoğlu City Council elections for the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP), thus becoming the first transgender candidate to run in any general election in Turkey.

She has been vocal about the discriminatory and harsh attitude of police towards the transgender community and of the community being often compelled to embrace prostitution for earning a livelihood.