Anti-LGBT acts on the rise in France, a really “worrying” local weather for associations | EUROtoday

The 13% improve in anti-LGBT+ offenses recorded by the police and gendarmerie in 2023, in accordance with figures printed on Thursday, May 16, by the Ministry of the Interior, illustrates, within the eyes of associations, the “extremely worrying” local weather. which reigns in France.

According to a research by the ministry's statistical service, 2,870 crimes or offenses (assaults, threats, harassment, and so on.) in opposition to lesbians, gays, bi and trans folks have been recorded final 12 months, a soar of 19% in comparison with 2022, a 12 months already marked by a rise of 13%.

Added to this are 1,690 fines, 94% of that are insults. These fines, which had fallen by 9% in 2022, elevated by 4%.

“We have the impression that the embers of LGBTIphobia are lit and that the fire is ready to catch on. 2024 is a year that particularly concerns us,” stated the president of SOS Homophobia, Julia Torlet, on Wednesday, presenting the annual report of lengthy.

“We risk finding ourselves in a situation of violence like that of 2012-2013” ​​if “the government does not react”, she warned, referring to the tense interval of debates on “marriage for all” .

Since 2016, anti-LGBT+ assaults have elevated considerably: +17% on common per 12 months for crimes and misdemeanors and +10% for fines, in accordance with ministry statistics printed on the eve of the World Day Against Homophobia, transphobia and biphobia, Friday May 17.

Hate speech

But these figures solely mirror a part of the truth. Indeed, the ministry's research specifies that solely 20% of LGBT+ victims file a criticism within the occasion of threats or violence, and 5% within the occasion of insult (survey carried out over 2012-2018).

Insults and defamation characterize a 3rd of anti-LGBT+ crimes and offenses recorded in 2023. Attacks on folks 19%, as do threats (19%). Harassment (5%) is rarer, as are assaults of a sexual nature, even when they’re growing (8% of the whole, in comparison with 2% in 2022).

More than 70% of victims are males, in accordance with the ministry, a reality additionally highlighted by SOS Homophobia, which denounces particularly the rising phenomenon of ambushes.

According to the ministry, these implicated in these crimes and offenses are 82% males. Nearly half (49%) are below 30; 31% are even below 19 years outdated.

“We have passed the stage of concern,” Maxime Haes, spokesperson for one more affiliation, Stop Homophobia, advised AFP.

Its evaluation relies particularly on the report from the European Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) printed Tuesday: in France, 60% of individuals keep away from holding the fingers of their companions of the identical intercourse for worry of being attacked, a determine above the EU common (53%).

“Government silence”

Anti-LGBT+ acts happen, believes Maxime Haes, in a context of “drastic increase in LGBTphobic speeches, in particular transphobic”, that are “to be correlated with the rise of the extreme right and religious extremism”.

Transphobic discourse, he judges, was additional exacerbated by the publicized launch in April of the e book “Transmania”, which presents itself as an “investigation into the abuses of transgender identity” however which, in accordance with Maxime Haes , “stereotype” transgender and intersex folks with “the most infamous clichés: pedophilia, child criminality, mental deviance”.

In basic, on-line hatred is “increasing”, with “groups leading an offensive”, underlines Julia Torlet.

“Experiencing violence, discrimination, hate speech brings fear, a feeling of guilt, mental distress” and might result in melancholy and suicide makes an attempt, remembers Ugo Ziccarelli, of SOS Homophobia.

Faced with the assaults, the affiliation denounces an “abysmal government silence”, the appointment as Prime Minister of Gabriel Attal, brazenly homosexual, being, in accordance with it, accompanied by “no ambitious policy” on the LGBT+ problem.

“Hate speech is not at all combated by political leaders,” additionally criticizes Maxime Haes.

On Friday, the Minister answerable for the Fight in opposition to Discrimination, Aurore Bergé, is because of meet actors within the battle in opposition to LGBT+ hatred and take part in a ceremony honoring the victims of LGBTphobia in Paris, which can be marked by a minute of silence.

With AFP