Mademoiselle CoCo: Transgender Established

Seyhan Arman (39) was born in Adana. She left her family home when she was 15 years old. She took the stage for a play to support disabled community. That was her first teatrical performing experience. Meanwhile she worked for a local radio station as dj. She began clown performance in the streets of Adana, southern Turkish city in 1997. She came to Istanbul in the beginning of 2000’s, worked as singer at several pulp night clubs for a while. During these years she involved political LGBT community “Lambda Istanbul”. After then she took the stage as drag queen with a stage name “Matmazel Coco” (Mademoiselle Coco). She also performs as Matmazel Coco at several entertainment events. She began her professional acting carrier in 2014. She wrote and played a theatrical drama called “Küründen Kabare” (Cabaret of Sham) along two seasons ,which was about her story as a lgbt individual. She has nominated “best women actress” with her teathrical performance. She did also act at several tv series and movies. She is Turkish dubbing for a black drag queen character called Electra in a Netflix serie called “Pose”.

“I have discovered something different about me just before the primary school period. I couldn’t name it during that time. I didn’t know any other transsexual or homesexual beside me, and I was thinking that I am the only one around the world. I thought that there had been a mistake! I really don’t care any physical transformation on me. No matter that I have long or short hair. My breast prosthesis, hormonal support or surgical operations doesn’t matter for me. The important thing is my soul; that have never changed. This is the only thing that I care.” said Seyhan Arman.

In Turkey pride week is banned for the last 7 years. According to The Trans Murder Monitoring (TMM) report, Turkey is in rank first in transexual murder for the last 10 years in Europe. More than 60 transexuals have been killed in the last 10 years in Turkey.