The year 2020 in France, marked by several confinements due to Covid-19, has exacerbated anti-LGBT violence within families, according to French associations for the defense of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people. “We have never been so solicited for intra-family aggressions”, indicates Matthieu Gatipon-Bachette, spokesperson for the association collective Inter-LGBT, contacted by France 24. “For some, very young, coming out s 'went badly. Usually they have a valve with the school, support from friends, but with confinement they found themselves alone in the face of violence. Others have been kicked out of their homes by their families ”. 

President of an LGBT reception center in Metz, Matthieu Gatipon-Bachette has received unprecedented requests from young inhabitants of outlying and peri-urban areas.

Member of the association Beyond Gender, which supports young transsexuals, Clémence Zamora-Cruz makes the same observation with France 24: “During the confinement, young people called on us to mediate with their families and we have had a few cases of children being driven from their homes.

We managed to get them to safety, but it was very difficult. ”

A

 decline in anti-LGBT acts in "trompe l'

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there"

After years of increase, anti-LGBT acts recorded in France have nevertheless fallen by 15% in 2020, announced, on May 12, the Ministry of the Interior.

This decline marks a halt to the continuous increase observed since 2016, when these figures began to be published, and which had been particularly strong the last two years (36% in 2019 and 33% 2018). 

Some 1,590 victims of homophobic or transphobic crimes or offenses were counted in 2020, against 1,870 in 2019. According to the ministry, nearly a third of victims suffered "anti-LGBT" insults (31%) and a quarter of non-sexual physical violence (26%).

Among the victims of physical violence, half (51%) had a total incapacity for work (ITT). 

Compare 2 years that are so different🤔



What about the downgrading of the facts by the police and the difficulty of filing a complaint for #LGBTI people.


#LGBTIphobias are still too present in France. # RapportLGBTIphobies2021https: //t.co/cLvy1VnLr8

- SOS homophobia (@SOShomophobie) May 13, 2021

Figures "trompe l'oeil" since they are based on the number of complaints filed, warn the associations. The Ministry of the Interior itself warns of the gap between this record and the reality of anti-LGBT attacks. " The lodging of a complaint is an approach very little carried out by the victims ", underlines it.

According to a survey carried out over the period 2012-2018, "around 20% of victims of 'anti-LGBT' threats or violence and only 5% of victims of 'anti-LGBT' insults claim to have lodged a complaint on average", recalls the ministry.

"The confinement weighed heavily on the filing of complaints", details Matthieu Gatipon-Bachette. "The circulation of the Covid-19 has dissuaded people from moving and regrouping, but often the victims ask us to accompany them in this kind of complaints. They'd rather not go alone. "

Improve police training

The other difficulty lies in the training of the police "who will not always retain the homophobic circumstance of the aggression", adds Matthieu Gatipon-Bachette. Even if the 2020-2023 government plan provides for a series of measures, such as the development of continuing training for LGBT + referents within police stations and gendarmerie squads to improve the reception of victims. “It must now be declined,” insists Matthieu Gatipon-Bachette.  

On the ground, the associations did not wait.

The LGBT + association of officials from the Ministries of the Interior and Justice, Flag, has developed its own application, thanks to which victims can first anonymously report the violence they suffer on a daily basis.

“Then at the end of each report, state or association contacts are recommended so that the victim can seek help and no longer be alone, isolated”, specifies the association.

Intra-family violence but no complaints

Other brakes are more difficult to lift.

“We are sometimes not aware that we are a victim of homophobia when we are called 'tarlouze' or 'queer'.

It takes a bit of hindsight to realize it ”, Étienne Deshoulières, lawyer of Stop Homophobie, contacted by France 24. The association, which has supported legal proceedings for homophobic insults, receives around 2,500 calls each. year.

A figure that does not weaken. 

When the victim is young and not supported by his family, the process is even more complicated.

“When those around them are not aware, young people do not want their loved ones to know that the assault or theft of which they were victims was homophobic”, explains the spokesperson for Inter-LGBT. 

In this context, it is even more complicated to assess anti-LGBT violence within families.

“It is extremely difficult to denounce those close to them,” notes Clémence Zamora-Cruz.

Difficult to quantify, intra-family violence therefore escapes official figures.

With AFP

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