Report France
Transphobia: "Aggression comes from the prejudices we can have about people"
Audio 02:42
May 17 was chosen as the symbolic date for the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia to commemorate the WHO's decision on May 17, 1990 to no longer consider homosexuality a mental illness.
© Getty Images/Vladimir Vladimirov
By: Laurence Théault Follow
3 mins
According to several surveys, in 2021, 375 transgender people, people whose gender identity does not match the sex assigned to them at birth, were murdered worldwide, 96% of them women.
In France, in the first quarter of 2021, 1,968 physical attacks were recorded.
Verbal attacks are countless.
Testimonials.
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Blonde hair, face with fine features and butterfly-rimmed glasses, Diane Leriche is a transgender woman.
She defines herself as an activist and feminist, for her transphobia is contained in the word “transgender”.
“
Aggression comes from the prejudices we may have about people.
That a trans person is necessarily a sexual object, it is necessarily an object of fantasies, it is a sexual pervert..
.
“, describes Diane Leriche.
"
Deviant creature
" is also part of the vocabulary.
When a transgender woman has not yet changed marital status, words hurt.
"
When you arrive at an ophthalmologist in a large office, you give your social security card, you haven't yet changed your marital status and you are called 'sir' when in expression of gender, we can clearly see that you are a woman, you are "outed"
(public revelation by a third party of a person's sexuality or birth gender, without their prior consent, editor's note)
in front of everyone, all that for a history of documents
,” laments Diane Leriche.
► Also to listen: Despite the law, transphobia remains strong in France
An insidious transphobia
A person who feels like a woman but was born into a boy's body can begin a transition process with the help of hormone therapy in the first place.
Soft face with lightly made-up eyes, shy smile Daisy Letourneur, 40, presents herself in a spring dress, she is an activist
in the collective "Tous des femmes"
.
According to her, transphobia can be insidious.
"
This is found in a lot of experiences where we have to effectively, at the administrative level, justify who we are, doctors who, not knowing trans people, will ask very personal questions, talk about our transition when we has a cold.
There are a thousand things, big and small, that happen and fall under transphobia on a daily basis in our experiences.
»
Discrimination also exists in the workplace, which Daisy Letourneur experienced.
“
It could be, for example, '
we're going to put you in the closet so that you don't show up in front of customers
', or say to us '
okay, you can be a woman with us, but in front of the public, you're still a man
. ”
»
When transphobia comes from loved ones
But transphobia is felt in a cruel way as it affects loved ones, confirms Diane Leriche.
“
I have only one brother who still hasn't understood and depending on the situation, he will gender me as a man.
He will do it on purpose.
I appreciate him very much, I even love him, but I avoid contact with him because it hurts me.
He denies my being, who I am in the depths of myself
, ”insists Diane Leriche.
Daisy Letourneur lowers her eyes, what pains her the most is the rejection of a very dear friend.
“
It was done without a word, quite simply.
He stopped answering my calls, my messages.
That, it stays in the throat …
“, she lets go.
The associations also denounce an institutional transphobia, even if there have been advances it is still very complicated to change marital status, transgender people must justify themselves before a judge.
After a drop in 2020 in the context of a health crisis, complaints or crimes and misdemeanors increased by 28% in 2021, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
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