"LGBT issues in Turkey are often ignored by the government entities and mostly misrepresented in the Turkish mass media. Transsexual subjects, often erroneously identified as transvestites, yet have been subjected to various types of violence and stereotyping throughout the history of the modern Turkish Republic. The mass media undoubtedly played a part in enforcing many negative and/or erroneous stereotypes in the minds of the audience. Yet, there are some Turkish films that on the surface aim to bring to light the hard conditions transsexual subjects face in their daily lives. Apart from reviewing the background of transsexual issues in the Turkish history and analyzing the approach of the Turkish media in their treatment of transsexual subjects, I also aimed to establish the extent in which the media could be the cause of the re/creation and re/production of the transsexual image, gender roles and violence within the heterosexist and transphobic social structure in Turkey.
