Insults, spitting, discrimination and even physical violence... Hatred against LGBT + people remains "anchored" in French society, alarmed in its annual report published on Tuesday, the association SOS Homophobia, which calls on the government to "act much more resolutely" against this scourge. Thanks to its helpline and digital spaces, the association collected some 2022,1 reports of homophobic or transphobic hate in 500, a level that was more or less stable compared to the previous year. On the other hand, the evolution is "worrying" regarding physical attacks, up 28% between 2021 and 2022, or one every two days, says Joël Deumier, co-president of the association.
Violence, which can take the form of "ambushes set via dating applications", sometimes falls on victims "for trivial and often non-existent reasons", summarize the authors of the report. They cite many cases, such as that of a couple of men attacked with a knife in the subway, two women who discovered twenty spitting on their car, a young man beaten by five attackers or another harassed by his neighbor who told him: "You are of a race that does not deserve to live". "Despite the evolution of laws and mentalities, today LGBT people still cannot live freely, as they are," deplores Joël Deumier.
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In addition to the attacks, the report denounces the discrimination suffered by homosexuals and cites in particular cases of real estate agencies "who refuse to rent or sell to LGBT + couples or families". A gay couple could not rent a room in a Paris hotel, on the grounds that "it is not possible, two men in a room with a double 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.
An increase in transphobic acts
After an increase of 13% in 2021, transphobic acts have increased by another 26% in 2022, a form of rejection "trivialized" and maintained by schools that "often refuse any administrative change" of the gender of transgender students, also denounces the report. To stop these acts of hatred, the government must launch a "national awareness campaign", says SOS Homophobie, for whom it would also be necessary to "strengthen the means of investigation" and better train the police who still too often refuse to take into account the complaints of the victims.
The report also takes stock of LGBT rights elsewhere in the world: while some states have recently introduced "marriage equality", conversely the situation has deteriorated in countries such as Afghanistan, or Iran where two lesbian women have been sentenced to death. Homosexuality is still criminally punishable in more than 70 countries. In an article to be published Wednesday on the website of the newspaper Le Monde, the French committee of the international association against homophobia IDAHO pleads for the UN General Assembly to propose a moratorium on the application of executions or prison sentences imposed on people "simply because they are what they are".
"Some countries believe that public opinion is not ready" for the abolition of repressive measures, and it is not a question of asking states to renounce "their philosophy, values or religious beliefs," says the association. But "in the meantime, with a moratorium on the enforcement of sentences, the countries concerned could save face, and we could save lives," the report concludes.