On the occasion of the day of coming out of the international closet today (Tuesday) the Association for the LGBT launched a special awareness campaign.
According to the association, 35% of members and members of the LGBT community live their lives "in the closet" while 65% live outside it, according to a study conducted by Dr. Siegel Goldin of the Israel Institute for Gender and LGBT Research at the Association for the LGBT.
According to the findings of the study in which 1,471 companies and members of the LGBT community in Israel participated nationwide, representing a variety of gender and sexual identities, those who live "in the closet" were exposed to more intense LGBT-phobic experiences than those who live their lives outside the closet.
That is to say that there is a connection between the strength of the LGBT-phobic experiences experienced by the individual, and the choice to live in the closet. This figure is particularly noticeable in the younger age groups.
To Tabim in Tel Aviv, photo: Dodo Greenspan
The findings also show that as age decreases, the percentage of LGBT people living in the closet increases. For example, among 16-18 year olds - 45% in the closet, among 19-25 year olds - 37% in the closet, and among those 26 and older - 21% in the closet. The data according to sexual orientation, in the study it was found that most of the respondents who define themselves as bisexual (53%) choose to hide their sexual identity from those around them, compared to 22% and 23% respectively, among lesbians and gays. Among the respondents and respondents on the trans spectrum, there is a similar trend to the entire sample, When the rate of respondents in the closet is about 32%.
Ran Shalhabi, CEO of the LGBT Association, photo: Dodo Greenspan
The CEO of the Association for the LGBT community, Ran Shalhabi, responded to the data and said that "everyone deserves the right to be who they are, without being attacked, ostracized or afraid that they will be harmed.
The gay community in Israel has been fighting for many years for the freedom to be who we are, without hiding, and without paying the price of shame, guilt, and fear, and in the contemporary reality of life in Israel, there is still a long way to go towards a life without fear and in promoting safe spaces for LGBT people. The campaign sends a clear message Both for the LGBT and for the entire Israeli public - you have a place to come out of the closet and you have a place to do it in a way and at a time that suits you and it depends on each of us in Israeli society, in the family and in the environment.'
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