Kadıköy Mayor: I will protect the rights of LGBTI+s until the end

Kadıköy Mayor Şerdil Dara Odabaşı reacted to the discriminatory statements of Kadıköy Municipality Council AKP Group Deputy Chairperson Ahmet Koyunoğlu in the Municipality Council.

Kadıköy Municipality Council AKP Group Deputy Chairman Ahmet Koyunoğlu criticised the inclusion of LGBTI+s in the Local Equality Action Plan in his speech at the city council and said: "In the Local Equality Action Plan of Kadıköy Municipality, there are brochures and posters that institutionalise LGBT in 6 places and targets that normalise it. These goals are against our social culture, morals and customs.”

Koyunoğlu's discriminatory words continued as: “We reject the effort to legitimise this by presenting it as a new third gender beyond presenting deviant preferences as normal things. Also, Şerdil bashkan, what is this LGBT curiosity? Mr. Bashkan, what is LGBT curiosity?"

Odabaşı reacted.

Kadıköy Mayor Şerdil Dara Odabaşı, who first reacted to Koyunoğlu's discriminatory statements from where he was sitting, then reacted to these words during his speech and answered the question "Do you have a special interest in LGBTs" by saying "Yes, I do".

Şerdil Dara Odabaşı also mentioned:

“Do you have a special interest in LGBTs?” Yes I do. I stand by whoever is disadvantaged in Kadıköy, who needs help in Kadıköy, and who is discriminated against in Kadıköy. I am honored to stand next to them. As a CHP municipality, as a social democratic mayor, we do not discriminate on the basis of anyone's religion, language, race or sexual preference. I don't, I won't let. We cannot discriminate. The targets and activities we set out in our Local Equality Action Plan are equality-based actions in order to find solutions to different evolving needs arising from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.