Insults, spitting, discrimination and even physical violence: hatred against LGBT+ people remains “anchored” in French society, is alarmed, in its annual report published this Tuesday, May 16, the association SOS Homophobia, which calls on the government to “act much more resolutely” against this scourge.
Thanks to its helpline and its digital spaces, in 2022 the association collected some 1,500 reports relating to situations of homophobic or transphobic hatred, i.e. a more or less stable level compared to the previous year.
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Evolution, on the other hand, is “concerning” concerning physical attacks, up 28% between 2021 and 2022, or one every two days, said Joël Deumier, co-president of the association, to AFP. “Despite the evolution of laws and mentalities, today LGBT people still cannot live freely, as they are”he lamented.
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Violence, which can take the form of “stretched ambushes via dating apps”sometimes falls on the victims “for futile and often non-existent reasons”summarize the authors of the report.
They cite numerous cases, such as that of a couple of men who were stabbed in the metro, of two women who discovered about twenty spit on their car, of a young man beaten up by five attackers or even another harassed by his neighbor who threw at him: “You are of a race that does not deserve to live. »
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Many testimonies report discrimination, for example concerning real estate agencies, “who refuse to rent or sell to couples or families” LGBT+. A gay couple could not rent a room in a Parisian hotel, on the grounds that “it is not possible, two men in a room with a large bed”. Similarly, a non-binary person was denied entry to a public library and a transgender octogenarian was denied entry to a hearing aid shop.
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After a 13% increase in 2021, transphobic acts rose another 26% in 2022, a form of rejection “trivialized” and maintained by educational establishments which “often refuse any administrative modification” of the gender of transgender students, denounces the report.
To stop these acts of hatred, the government must launch a national awareness campaignclaims SOS Homophobia, for whom it would also be necessary “strengthen the means of investigation” and better train police and gendarmes, who still too often refuse to take victims’ complaints into account.
