In the month of June, the LGTBI+ Pride Day (and month) is celebrated internationally with the aim of making all sexual groups and diversities visible, breaking prejudices and raising awareness. However, to this day still persists a reality of intolerance, discrimination and even rejection, better known as LGTBI+phobia. In order to delve a little deeper into this problem, we talked to Mr. Daniele Antonio Vasta, member of Top Doctors and specialist in General Health Psychology, expert in LGTBI counseling.
Daniele, what is LGTBI+phobia?
LGTBI+phobia is considered to be that set of acts of intolerance, rejection or discrimination that occur for reasons of affective-sexual orientation or gender identity directed towards lesbians (L), gays (G), transsexuals (T), bisexuals (B), intersexuals (I) and other groups that are not represented in the above (+). When these acts are directed towards a person or group of people then we speak of “direct discrimination”. This occurs when insults are verbalized and/or direct aggressions or threats are made.
We speak of “indirect discrimination” when it is disguised and more difficult to prove. It can occur when unfavorable conditions are created for people from different groups such as, for example, receiving different treatment from other people in a public or private institution, because of gender or affective-sexual orientation, or in the case of employment.
What types of LGTBI+phobia are there?
There are as many types of LGTBI+phobia as there are affective-sexual orientations or gender identity. In addition to the discrimination that can occur towards those people who do not feel represented by the acronym LGTBI, it also includes those who are represented for communicative convenience with the reference “+”. They will then be lesbophobia, gayphobia, transphobia, biphobia or “phobia” towards people who do not see themselves represented by either a male or female gender (non-binary gender), by their way of living their sexuality, of loving, of being.
How does this aversion usually manifest itself in the victims?
The contexts in which this aversion usually occurs are many and varied: in the street, at work, in leisure centers, in collective spaces, or even in private and family spaces. Sometimes it manifests itself with physical violence with tragic events in urban spaces (streets, public parties, parks, etc.) or even in the home, and even in environments where sexual acts are performed that may initially be consented to by the people who participate in them. Violence can be both verbal and written, and through different media, physical or digital (social networks, for example). On the other hand, in the work environment there can also be physical or psychological harassment (threats, or also mobbing at work).
In the case of indirect LGTBI+phobia, it can manifest itself by denying entry to entertainment venues, restaurants or in professional environments. It can also be the case of expulsions in associative circles of any kind.
Likewise, in the case of a transsexual person, it may be considered transphobia to call him/her by his/her name registered at birth, and not by the name he/she has chosen and in accordance with the gender he/she feels.
Do you think we are “going backwards” in tolerance, and there is more rejection, or the other way around? We usually see many cases of aggression in the media….
The data confirm this. Unfortunately in recent years LGTBI+phobic aggressions have increased, also in the same city of Barcelona, which stands out for the relevant role it has had in the fight for the rights of LGTBI+ people already since the ’70s.
According to a 2018 report by FELGTB (State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Trans and Bisexuals), while the Ministry of Interior collected 259 LGTBI+phobic incidents, entities and associations recorded three times more cases: 971 in total. Incidents declined somewhat during the first months of the pandemic in the Madrid community, but have increased in other communities between 2019 and 2020. Campaigns by entities linked to right-wing and extreme right-wing political parties may have played a major role in this spike. Let’s remember, for example, the buses that launched messages of the type “boys have penises, girls have vulvas”.
What do you think of movements like TERF (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist), which literally translates as “Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist”?
I think it’s another discrimination. Sometimes it is a topic that I have to address with a female patient (I don’t need to say “transsexual”, a woman is a woman). In some cases, when the female patient already feels secure in her gender identity and has been able to deal with other discriminatory experiences with positive success, she is able to relativize this discrimination and move on. But, when the patient is in the process of re-identification and acceptance, then this “exclusion” is difficult to understand and accept. Is there anyone who is more of a woman than another?
Following the logic of the TERF movement, in my opinion, is perpetuating the same logic that leads to machismo, the presumption of being “more” than another. Therefore, I believe that the TERF movement would be behaving in the same way as the subjects, with their culture of reference, against which they are fighting.
The case of Sonia Rescalvo, considered the first transphobic crime in Catalonia, do you think that the TV3 program Crims has helped to make these groups more visible and to condemn this type of aversion, or on the contrary?
I don’t think the Crims program had that objective. If so, they should have talked about “transphobia” at the beginning, during and not only at the end, in the last 5 seconds. A missed opportunity by TV3. As far as I know the program aims to present crimes, collect and present facts, hypotheses and results, while maintaining impartiality.
Even so, if there had been some emphasis on the issue of transphobia it would not have taken any position in favor of the aggressors or the victims. It would have created the conditions to give space also to a culture of respect, of civic sense. Moreover, as can be seen in the program, through interviews with activists of the collective, such as Jordi Petit or the woman who knew the victim, it would have been very easy to make reference to discrimination. In short, a missed opportunity that could have been even more profitable thanks to the work of so many people and the investment made by the public television of Catalonia.
Some people defend the work of the Catalan public television for bringing the case to light, but some associations, such as El Front d’Alliberament Gai de Catalunya (FAGC) and the Observatori Contra l’Homofòbia (OCH) have denounced the sensationalism of the program, stressing that it does not address the underlying problem: hatred and transphobia. How do you think the media can help in the work of denunciation, or in “victimizing” too much?
I have read the criticisms made and I do not agree with them. I do not think that the program has been sensationalist or that it has revictimized Sonia Rescalvo. As I said before, TV3 and those responsible for the program could have optimized even more the economic and professional resources invested in order to denounce properly a murder for transphobia. Perhaps spending less time showing the context and some of the social problems of Barcelona in 1991.
In general, the media do little to inform, to educate in the respect of the different affective-sexual orientations and gender identity. They remember it during the Gay Pride month, sometimes in a “folkloric” way, or they do it when, unfortunately, there is a very striking case of violence in the media.
How can we raise awareness among the population and, above all, among the new generations, so that they grow in tolerance?
Efforts should be aimed at educating in respect, rather than tolerance. Education in respect has the effect of being inclusi
ve, education in tolerance implies the logic of the “support of the other person”.
The objective of every informative-educational context (family, school, media) must be to allow to know and recognize diversities, to value them from the point of view of enrichment. It is very necessary to educate in empathy, in the feeling of humanity and the sense of community. Being empathetic with those who do not act as we would do and recognizing their right to love as they want and to be what they feel would have a great effect on society and on the reduction of discrimination and violence.
The new generations have more opportunities to become aware and be made aware thanks to educational contexts that also include the gender perspective and affective-sexual orientation in their didactic programs. In my practice it is often necessary to address the trauma suffered by gay or transgender people as a result of bullying during childhood or adolescence.
On the other hand, it would be a big step forward to start filtering well the type of language used in film and music products. In sports, for example, there is still a lot of machismo and LGTBI+phobia, and there are very few testimonies of famous athletes who occasionally participate in a campaign in defense of LGTBI+ rights.
The policies and the investment of resources and efforts towards the new generations must also foresee policies directed towards adults, mothers and fathers. Adults must be able to support the work done at school or in other environments. In this sense, it is necessary to become very critical with certain advertising campaigns carried out by important and very consolidated companies that offer dresses and accessories for school: “blue for him, pink for her”. It is necessary to leave behind the macho and LGTBI+phobic influence of 40 years of dictatorship. Unfortunately, still more than 40 years of democracy have not known and been able to remedy that harmful influence.