Being a predominantly Muslim and conservative country, Turkey clearly is no haven for lesbians, gays, bisexuals or transsexuals. As Al-Monitor’s Verda Ozer has pointed out, the Islamist government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has done its best to block attempts at enhancing LGBT rights.

At the same time, violence and institutionalized discrimination based on religious morality and homophobic prejudice is often just a step away for members of the transgender community.

Yet, Turkey is also full of contradictions which demonstrate that while the LGBT community faces an uphill battle for rights, the battle is not a totally hopeless one. In a recent development, a judge in the western Anatolian city of Aydin applied to the Constitutional Court against an article in the Penal Code that is frequently used against transgender persons.

Meanwhile, this year’s Gay Pride Parade in Istanbul and Turkey’s first transsexual beauty pageant, which preceded it, received widespread media coverage that focused more attention on LGBT rights and the plight of this community in this country.