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In 2022, the number of cases of transphobia reported to SOS Homophobia increased by 35% compared to 2020 and by 27% compared to 2021.
DISCRIMINATION – “ The relationship of society in general to trans people needs to change systemically “SOS Homophobia alert in its annual report published this Tuesday, May 16, on the eve of the International Day Against Homophobia. While LBGTIphobic reports to the association increased in 2022 compared to 2021, those concerning transphobic violence stand out even more.
Ten years after the Marriage for All Act, the persistence and entrenchment of LBGTIphobia in society is highlighted throughout the report. ” In the overall number of reports against LGBTI people, we are at higher levels than before Covidesteemed by the HuffPost Joël Deumier, co-president of SOS Homophobia. There has been a 27% increase in physical violence compared to 2021. This represents one physical attack every two days against an LGBTI person in 2022.”
For trans people, the numbers are even more alarming. In 2022, the number of cases of transphobia reported to SOS Homophobia increased by 35% compared to 2020 and by 27% compared to 2021. Trans women are the main victims. In 74% of attacks for which the gender of the attacker is known, a man is involved.
“Healthy visibility and backlash”
If the Covid can explain part of this jump, it is above all due “ both to an anchoring of transphobia in French society and also to the liberation of speech for trans people victims “, according to Joel Deumier. “ Thanks to the visibility on transidentities in society, the media, the series, the cinema, this word has been released, but it also provokes an explosion of violencehe believes. It’s a bit of a double movement, of beneficial visibility and backlash. »
The testimonies collected by SOS Homophobia are often those of young people. 14% of victims of transphobia who reported to the association are under 18 years old. ” These days, trans people are becoming aware of their identity earlier and earlier. And, when it comes to minors, this induces a very great vulnerability, a need for those around them to be supportive in the face of a world that is unfortunately increasingly hostile. The reality is often different: it is in the reactions of loved ones that trans people discover the hostility of the world “, underlines the association.
This report, which is the 27th published by SOS Homophobia, is also dedicated in its first pages to Lucas, the 15-year-old teenager who ended his life in January 2023, after being the victim of LGBTIphobic hatred and school harassment. ” In many cases, school is where young trans people learn that transphobia is not limited to the family setting. The administration of educational establishments often refuses any administrative modification, which would make it possible to respect the identity of these people. “, underlines the report.
Change of marital status
The most common contexts of transphobia are businesses and administrations (20% of cases), the Internet (18%), family and friends (13%). ” It ranges from rejection, bullying, insulting, transphobic killing, discrimination and harassment. “recalls Joël Deumier. The association calls on the public authorities to react, whether by training police officers, gendarmes, teachers, health personnel and other state agents, or awareness campaigns against LBGTIphobia.
” Ten years after marriage for all, just because there’s been progress in the law doesn’t mean it’s behind us “warns the co-president of SOS Homophobia. The report notably recalls the reactions provoked by a series of Family Planning posters published in August 2022, including one showing a pregnant man. cyberbullying campaign, “amplified by various newspapers such as Le Figaro or Valeurs Actuelles “, which followed, ” testifies as much to a rejection of trans people as to a misunderstanding of the realities linked to them », Considers the association.
“The ball is in the state’s court”
Another aspect on which SOS Homophobia is waiting for answers from the government: that of rights. ” We fight for the law to evolve and make the change of gender in the civil status of trans people completely free and free and that they no longer have to go before a judge to do it.claims Joel Deumier. This is unacceptable. “If the 2016 law has” demedicalized » gender change in civil status, « we must go further and divert it “, he believes.
Monday, May 15, LGBTI associations were received by the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin. ” He is committed to appointing and training referents in police stations and gendarmerie postssays Joel Deumier. An announcement that had already been made in 2018 by Christophe Castaner… ” The Minister for Equality between Women and Men, Diversity and Equal Opportunities Isabelle Rome would have said to herself ” committed on the issue of gender change in civil status. ” The ball is in the State’s court and we are going to monitor all of this extremely rigorously. “, concludes the co-president of SOS Homophobia.
In 2022, SOS Homophobia collected 1,505 testimonies of anti-LGBTI hate acts through its national hotline and other listening devices. Among these testimonies, the number of physical attacks reported to SOS Homophobia is up 28% compared to 2021: an LGBTI person was thus physically attacked every two days.
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