Life can be dangerous for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people even at an early age. Many families react negatively to their child’s sexual orientation or gender identity with concerns about the reflection on the family and its “honor.”[1] Families may then begin to control the actions and freedom of their children in order to preserve the family image, charging another member with controlling the LGBT family member. Many families beat their LGBT family member as a kind of “corrective measure,” hoping that violence will “cure” them.[2]

Another “corrective measure” used against LGBT persons includes rape. Some rapes of LGBT women and transgender men are committed with the belief that intercourse with a man can “cure” a woman who is attracted to other women.[3] Other attackers use rape as a punishment for transgressing social norms. Women and transgender men have reported being sexually assaulted by strangers who realize that they are dressed in masculine clothes or are transgender.[4]

Some families pressure or force LGBT women and transgender men into heterosexual relationships and marriages. This is justified as a way to hide the “shame” of having an LGBT child. In other cases, forced heterosexual relationships and marriages are employed by families as a tactic that is believed to “cure” an LGBT child or make them “forget” their gender identity.[5] Cases of this kind of forced marriage are reported in various countries including Turkey and Azerbaijan.[6][7]

Other families commit “honor killings” of their LGBT child in response to the perceived damage to their family values and shame brought upon the family honor. Even in countries that have amended their laws to prevent the claim of “honor” or custom as a mitigating factor in murder cases, “honor killings” of LGBT men and women continue to be less severely punished than other homicides.[8] Turkey has reported cases of reduced punishment for offenders who committed violent acts against suspected LGBT victims.[9]

An additional risk factor is employment discrimination, which is not prohibited in most countries and may cause many transgender women are unable to find other jobs to turn to prostitution.[10] In nations where prostitution is legal, very few transgender women are licensed, due to discrimination. In Turkey, only women are allowed to be prostitutes in licensed brothels, but social stigma keeps transgender women from being licensed. Accordingly, many transgender women work illegally, making victims of violence less likely to turn to the police for assistance.[11] Every transgender prostituted woman interviewed by Amnesty International in Turkey reported being attacked by a client in the past.[12]

[1] Human Rights Watch, We Need a Law for Liberation: Gender, Sexuality, and Human Rights in a Changing Turkey at 6 (2008).

[2] Human Rights Watch, These Everyday Humiliations: Violence Against Lesbians, Bisexual Women, and Transgender Men in Kyrgyzstan at 15 (2008) (PDF. 49 pages).

[3] These Everyday Humiliations: Violence Against Lesbians, Bisexual Women, and Transgender Men in Kyrgyzstan at 15.

[4] Id. at 16.

[5] Id.; These Everyday Humiliations: Violence Against Lesbians, Bisexual Women, and Transgender Men in Kyrgyzstan at 13-14.

[6] We Need a Law for Liberation: Gender, Sexuality, and Human Rights in a Changing Turkey at 6.

[7] Forced Out: LGBT People in Azerbaijan at 23-24.

[8] We Need a Law for Liberation: Gender, Sexuality, and Human Rights in a Changing Turkey at 6.

[9] Id.

[10] Lewis Turner, Stephen Whittle, & Ryan Combs, Transphobic Hate Crime in the European Union at 8 (2009) (PDF, 47 pages); We Need a Law for Liberation: Gender, Sexuality, and Human Rights in a Changing Turkey at 7.

[11] We Need a Law for Liberation: Gender, Sexuality, and Human Rights in a Changing Turkey at 8-9.

[12] Amnesty International, Not an Illness Nor a Crime: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People in Turkey Demand Equality at 31 (2011) (PDF, 50 pages).