many believe that he would have accepted it because of his desire to open Turkey to modernity and his controversies on his religious beliefs.Under his mandate, Turkish queer groups started their fight for legal equality since in 1923 Turkey started a process of "Europeanization" that aimed to intake their values and norms. Before the process started, Istanbul was considered a city of "sexual freedom". With the western influence, the discrimination against the queer community increased rapidly. After Atatürk, the Turkish persisted in the process of "Europeanization" of the country, and until the 1960s homosexuality was not publicly discussed. The situation changed with the election of the Republican People's Party (CHP) in 1974, in coalition with the National Salvation Party (MSP). The MSP controlled the Interior Ministry, making queers the target of repressive policies. The attacks against the community became more frequent and violent. The members of the LGBTQ+ community kept on fighting for their rights and, to protect themselves, attempted to create their own political identity. With the military coup d'état on September 12, 1980, their effort came to an end. The 1980s With the establishment of the military regime, political parties were banned and the freedom of demonstration, association, speech, and the press were censored. The authorities initiated a campaign of mass persecution against the members of the community and trans sex workers were "deported" from the city centers to the outskirts of the city, and arrested from their places of work or in their apartments. The arrested were imprisoned with the political prisoners and had to face phycological and physical torture. In the 1980s, the Radical Democratic Green Party openly declared to be against police brutality and expressed their support in favor of gay rights and the transgender community assaulted by the authorities. The first legal ban occurred on March 19, 1981, when the Interior Ministry prohibited Drag queens from performing on nightclub stages. Bülent Ersoy attempted to circumvent the ban by undergoing sex reassignment surgery in London. The goal was to be legally recognized as a woman and not as a transvestite, however the Turkish government refused to recognize the transition and kept treating her as a "man in drag". On June 13, 1981, the Istanbul governor stopped Ersoy from performing, because she was wearing a woman's outfit and, according to the law, she was a man. Ersoy's ban was lifted on January 7, 1988, under Turgut