Organizational Structure, Types Of Activism And Values In LGBTI+ Organizations In Portugal And Turkey

The main purpose of the study; In LGBTI+ organizations, it is to understand how the rules within the organization are determined and the variability of the meanings of these rules and the types of activism used in the organizations.In addition; The values ​​that are taken as a basis or not accepted in the organization are examined. The study was carried out with 37 participants whose organizational time ranged from 2 months to 27 years. Of these participants, 21 people are from the Portuguese sample and 16 people are from the Turkish sample. Each of the participants is an active volunteer or salaried employee in an organization. First of all, the “Informed Voluntary Consent Form” was applied to the participants. Then, "Semi-Structured Interviews" consisting of questions about research problems were applied. At the end of these interviews, the “Association Values Practice” created by the researcher was applied. Semi-structured interview questions were divided into categories, themes and sub-themes with open coding methods of thematic analysis. Association Values ​​Application was examined by Frequency Analysis. Looking at the findings of the study, types of activism vary. Participants who find it very important to engage in identity politics are also found in organizations in both countries. Types of activism are also thought to be very relevant to the current time. The type of activism and the way they use identities differ from the generation born to an oppressed society and the generation born to a freer society. Visibility and advocacy are at the forefront in the answers that come from the sample of Turkey and can fall under the theme of Identity politics. When the main purpose of the organization is asked, the answers from the Portuguese sample are usually answers that can be considered as social motivation. Within the scope of the queer theme, it has been tried to examine how queer is used as an activism rather than its meanings for people. The striking point is that the participants in the Portuguese sample stated that they do not use queer a lot and therefore there is no activity type. Some participants from the Turkish sample stated that they have adopted a rights-based activism type, but even the existence of LGBTI+ organizations in Turkey can be a queer stance in terms of working with disadvantaged groups. Although the rules prioritized by each organization are different, horizontal organization is emphasized more in the Turkish sample. In the Association Values Practice, it was emphasized that the value of “discrimination” in the Portuguese sample, and the values of “violence” and “hierarchy” in the Turkish sample should not be within the association. It was observed that the values of “respect” and “equality” came to the fore in the Portuguese sample, while the value of “solidarity” came to the fore in the Turkish sample. It is thought that the findings of the study will enable the preparation of policy documents within LGBTI+ organizations and the re-evaluation of the concepts that are effective on the organizational structure.