Beatings, public humiliations, being rejected by their families… Gays, lesbians, bisexuals and trans are sharing their stories of abuse and discrimination. If you have also suffered this sort of abuse, step forward.
Written by Rubén Serrano. Original version written in Spanish here.
Gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transsexuals, intersexuals and other members of the LGTB+ community have taken to Twitter to denounce, with the hashtag #MeQueer, the verbal abuse, physical violence and other forms of discrimination they endure because of their sexual orientation and identity.
The movement, inspired by the #MeToo phenomenon which helped women all over the world share their stories of sexual abuse and harassment, was sparked by Hartmut Schrewe, a writer residing in Brandenburg (Germany).
‘My husband is my husband not my buddy. #Homophobia #MeQueer’, he tweeted on 13 August. The tweet itself didn’t gain much momentum, but the hashtag soon went viral and the LGBT+ community used it to publicly share their stories.
Beatings, humiliations in school, rejection by their families, and even the lack of visibility in the media; the LGBT+ community is sharing the violence they live day after day.
Despite the progress made for equal rights and social equality, violence against the LGBT+ community is still very much alive. Last month, the British government published a survey of 110,000 members of the community that revealed that two out of every five had suffered verbal or physical abuse in the last 12 months.
In Ireland, The Irish Council for Civil Liberties shared a report indicating that their country has one of the highest numbers of hate crimes against the trans community in the European Union.
In Spain, the Madrid Observatory against LGBT-phobia registered in 2017 up to 287 cases in the region of Madrid, 47 more than the previous year. In Catalonia, the Observatory against Homophobia recorded up to 111 incidents, 32.2% more than in 2016. However, not all cases are reported to the police. Many prefer not to turn to the authorities or even to organisations out of fear or shame.