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The May 17, 2024 – the 34th International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia is celebrated around the world, Italy at the 36th place out of 48 European countries monitored, confirmed by data obtained from the 21,000 contacts received in the last year throughout the national territory by the service Gay Help Line 800 713 713 toll-free number against homophobia and transphobia, and from Speakly.org chat.Since the Gay Help Line service began in March 2006, the service received over 350,000 hits.
More alarming data from Gay Help Line 800 713 713 (gayhelpline.it) and the chat Speakly.org relating to the last year. It emerges that homophobia and transphobia are not stopping and the negative social impact of violence and discrimination on LGBT+ people is growing substantially. The data that unfortunately emerges is that 53% of violence, of which 36% suffers domestic violence, especially young people and adolescents.
The coming out to the family caused a violent response from relatives in the 32.3% of the total cases followed in Gay Help Line of which the 27% of the victims are minors from 11 to 18 years old.
Domestic violence against minors has a high frequency (26.7% of cases post coming out) and is concerned about its forms and consequences: parental rejection triggers an escalation that includes insults, psychological pressure, and blackmail through the demand to "convert" or be kicked out of the house.
They are on the rise at 27% attacks on same-sex couples in public places such as transportation, the street and in particular the meeting places of the LGBT+ community
The last year was then characterized by the phenomenon of robberies aimed at homosexual youths In 5.4% of cases, particularly in the Lazio and Umbria regions, several gangs have developed a criminal plan.
I6% of the cases are adolescents who were victims of bullying at school or in sports, but also in informal social activities. In half of the cases, bullying also occurs on social media and online platforms.
Parental cases rise to 4.9% of minors aged between 13 and 17 interested in paths relating to their gender identity as people trans, transgender and non-binary.
The cases of gender-based violence occurred towards women in 30,6% of cases, people with male gender expression in 8.2%, transgender women in 34.7%, and people with female gender expression in 16.5%.
The public spaces have been the site of threats, homophobic, lesbian, and transphobic attacks in 12.4% of cases, of which 34.2% of these, violence was expressed on web.
32.6% of cases were victims of discrimination, of which 64% of these are in the workplace and 23.6% in the healthcare sector.
40.4% of the cases followed, is related to support for requests for the reception of LGBT+ people, fleeing from situations of domestic violence, of which 70.4% of the requests come from users between 15 and 26 years old,
Of approximately 400 cases of LGBT+ youth kicked out of their homes only the 10% manages to find hospitality in protected family homes such as LGBT+ Refuge e Refuge T* –At Ornella's house, our facilities, which welcome LGBT+ people and support them so that they can overcome the trauma they have suffered and achieve their own autonomy through training and job hunting.
A fact that has remained constant over time is the difficulty for victims to report: the phenomenon of’underreporting (failure to report) has a worrying impact on the recognition of the extent of discrimination and violence.
In this time of intense social pressure, legislative measures to support LGBT+ people, who still lack protection against discrimination, hatred, and violence, are even more urgent.
The services of Gay Help Line, Refuge LGBT+, , Refuge T* –At Ornella's house, they had the support of UNAR - Presidency of the Council, Lazio Region, Municipality of Rome, Italian Buddhist Institute Soka Gakkai and Waldensian Church, and furthermore for the second year the service will be supported by Flying Tiger Copenhagen and will be visible in 131 stores throughout Italy.
Alessandra Rossi – Gay Help Line Coordinator