These LGBTI+ activists are facing three years in prison for holding a peaceful Pride demonstration


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SEND A LETTER: FREE LGBTI+ PRIDE ACTIVISTS »
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Dear John,

The modern LGBTI+ pride movement was sparked at New York’s Stonewall Inn in 1969
— and it wasn’t a celebration. It was an uprising against police violence and ill-treatment.

More than 50 years later, LGBTI+ activists in Turkey are still facing police
repression and violence. Melike Balkan and Özgür Gür are university students who
were tear-gassed and beaten by police at their school’s Pride march. Now, along
with 17 others, they face trial and a prison sentence, simply for organizing
their campus Pride.

Act now: Send a letter to the Ambassador of Turkey, demanding officials
immediately drop all charges against Melike, Özgür, and the others involved in
this peaceful protest.
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Melike and Özgür are prominent members of the LGBTI+ solidarity group at their
school. But despite years of growing support and growing Pride marches,
university officials banned the group’s 2019 Pride march. In response, the
students held a peaceful sit-in and were met with excessive police force,
including tear gas.

Their fate rests with the court — and they are facing up to three years in
prison.

Amnesty has chosen both Melike and Özgür as activists to spotlight in our annual
Write for Rights campaign, an international letter-writing campaign where people
like you send hundreds of thousands of letters to world leaders, with the goal of freeing
prisoners of conscience and protecting human right defenders under attack.

John, these letters matter. In the past, an
overwhelming amount of letters sent by Amnesty members helped to amplify the
case of Magai Matiop Ngong in South Sudan, who was put on death row as a child.
Because of this public pressure, Magai’s death sentence was subsequently quashed
and he was removed from death row.

Please, join tens of thousands of Amnesty supporters worldwide: send a letter demanding the charges against Melike and Özgür be dropped.
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Here’s what Özgür tells us about why this matters to him:

“Pride has an extraordinary value. If you look at the history of Pride, we see
it in Stonewall, Istanbul Pride, in all Prides. It is a struggle against
violence, against hate crimes, all over the world. Pride is a moment where you
can express the things you experience in your life; you can be yourself. That’s
why they are so important.”

Many people may prefer not to focus on cases like these — but Amnesty supporters
are different: you refuse to look away from human rights defenders at risk, you
help sound the alarm to make sure the world is watching — and together, your
support has helped keep human rights defenders safe and free thousands of
wrongly accused and imprisoned advocates.

Thanks for standing up for what is right.


Billie Hirsch

Director of Online Engagement
Amnesty International USA

*prisoner of conscience: someone who is imprisoned solely for the peaceful
expression of their beliefs or identity.

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