Written by Dilara Senkaya and Buruk Karakas
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Ilker Yazici, stage name Miss Putka, was in middle school when he discovered he was gay.
There, he met LGBT advocacy groups and participated in street protests in support of LGBT rights, holding a rainbow flag in Turkey’s capital Ankara.
“I had a really hard time with myself at first,” he says. “You grow up in the Middle East. It’s not easy. I felt like I was the only one, as most LGBT people feel.”
Ilker, now 23, still felt no need to hide and continued to celebrate who he was. Inspired by Netflix’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race” series, he sees his drag performances as more than just entertainment, but as an act of self-expression.
“Drag is a political act. The audience will probably look at me and think, ‘What is this weirdo doing?'” I’m getting them used to seeing things that they’re not used to seeing. . ”
Many in Turkey’s LGBT community have been living in fear since last year’s election campaign, when President Tayyip Erdogan called LGBT groups deviants and vowed to strengthen traditional family values. Homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey, but hostility towards homosexuality is widespread.
Ilker’s conservative father doesn’t know anything about the drag life. Other relatives knew about the performances that took place every Friday and Saturday night, but no one dared to tell him.
“When you go on stage as a drag queen, you feel like you’re hiding behind a mask because of the makeup,” Ilker said. “Mr. Putka is very confident and very open to communication. I am different.”
Ilker is studying industrial design at Marmara University in Istanbul, but is considering studying performing arts in Spain. She said, “If I’m healthy, I can appear. I’ll do as much as I can.”
He has no qualms about performing drag, but living in Turkey does.
“I don’t know what my future holds here,” he said. “It’s so unpredictable.”
“We must behave with respect.”
When Ilker stole a black sequined blouse from her mother’s closet as a teenager and took to the stage for the first time in 2019, she never thought she would become a drag artist.
At the time, he was preparing to take university entrance exams and left home at night, telling his parents, “I forgot my book at the library.”
“I cut a pair of black jeans into shorts and wore them under my mother’s blouse, silver seven-centimeter heels and an extra lilac wig I borrowed from a friend,” he said.
“Despite the horrible makeup and costumes, the audience applauded like crazy and I felt like a star.”
Born and raised in Ankara, he traveled around the country for two years appearing at events for gay life magazine GZone. From then on, he started buying costumes and shoes at thrift stores and flea markets.
When Miss Putka, whose name comes from the slang word for vagina, started performing on stage at Istanbul’s XL nightclub, it was no longer a hobby, but a full-time job. Before his first professional show at the club, he spent a month training with the Russian dancers he shared the stage with.
“It’s a big venue. We’ve got dancers in the back, we’ve got seamstresses, they’ll do whatever we want,” he said.
At first, he was irritated by customers who ignored his performance and acted rude when he visited his table. But he learned how to deal with it.
“I started saying, ‘I work here, so I have to behave respectfully.’ They apologized.”
He became a stage manager and put together a team of about 15 people. Experienced drag performers advised him to use choreography to tell a story and broaden the show’s appeal. So he started playing popular songs by Lady Gaga.
Putka’s nun-like costume, complete with a bright red cross on her head, was inspired by American singer Todrick Hall, a choreographer and judge on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” . This five-minute performance of his is the most acclaimed, but not his favorite.
“I love the scene where she sings a Rihanna song and shoots flames out of her conical chest.”
(Photography by Dilara Senkaya; Reporting by Buruk Karakas; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Philippa Fletcher)
