On the occasion of the celebration of LGTBI Pride Day, today the group wanted to claim their rights and, at the same time, denounce the multiple acts of hate and discrimination that, unfortunately, they are still subject to. In Catalonia, for example, during the first half of 2023, a total of 133 people have reported to the Mossos d’Esquadra having suffered some kind of LGTBI-phobic attack or discrimination, which is more than double the number registered in the same period in 2022 (54) and an increase of 146%.
There is more data. According to figures from a survey published last May by the LGTBI State Federation, more than 280,000 LGTBI people (almost one in ten) have suffered some physical or sexual assault in the last five years.
In addition to increasing from 54 to 133 the victims who have denounced LGTBIphobia in Catalonia, the complaints for this fact have also increased during this period, according to the data that the Catalan police have made public today: 70 in this first quarter compared to 47 in the first quarter of 2022, which represents an increase of 70%.
This increase, according to the Mossos, does not respond, at least in large part, to the existence of a greater hatred towards this group, but rather to two factors that have come together over time. On the one hand, the joint work between the police, LGTBI entities and the administration (prosecutors specialized in crimes against hate, among others); and on the other, the growing hate speech that comes from the extreme right.
“The work that we have carried out for more than ten years with the entities and the dissemination of a message that values ??the complaint so that the attacks do not go unpunished has increased the number,” explains Joan Miquel Martínez, to La Vanguardia. Foreman and head of the Mossos d’Esquadra office for hate crimes and discrimination.
Martínez explains that the entities have helped the people in the group to know their rights better, an aspect that has “empowered” them. In parallel, he says, “the fear of going to the police station to make a complaint has also been overcome.”
However, there is another factor, in his opinion, that has influenced the increase in complaints, and it is none other than “the increase in hate speech through social networks, some media and even some extreme right-wing political parties ”.
The confluence of these two realities – continues the foreman – on the public highway (a more empowered group that lives its sexual freedom, “as it cannot be otherwise in a democratic country”, and people emboldened by hate speech) it causes “more disagreements” to appear that can translate into aggression.
According to police statistics, the crimes that have occurred the most in this period have been assaults, threats and coercion, and in most cases, the victim and perpetrator did not know each other. As a general rule, approximately 80% of LGTBIphobia cases result in verbal and psychological violence, while the remaining 20% ??correspond to physical violence. Most attacks are perpetrated by men.
The investigation published last month by the LGTBI State Federation revealed that, in the last five years, 29% of LGTBI people have been harassed (between 950,000 and 1,100,000 people); 27.5% discriminated against (between 900,000 and 1,050,000 people) and 8.6% have suffered at least one physical or sexual assault (between 283,000 and 325,000 people).
