International

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EU lawmakers to debate declaring bloc an LGBT ‘freedom zone’

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The European Parliament is scheduled to debate a resolution on Wednesday that would declare the entire 27-member European Union a “freedom zone” for LGBT people.

The move comes largely in reaction to developments over the past two years in Poland, where many local communities have adopted largely symbolic resolutions declaring themselves free of what conservative authorities have been calling “LGBT ideology.” 

These towns say they are seeking to defend their traditional Catholic values, but LGBT rights activists say the designations are discriminatory and make gays and lesbians feel unwelcome. The areas have come to be colloquially known as “LGBT-free zones.”

But the resolution to be debated Wednesday also seeks to address problems faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people across the bloc. 

It says the fundamental rights of LGBT people have been “severely hindered” recently in Hungary due to a de facto ban on legal gender recognition for transgender and intersex people. It cites problems in Latvia, and notes that only two member states — Malta and Germany — have banned “conversion therapy,” a controversial and potentially harmful attempt to change a person’s sexual orientation.

The resolution is the work of the a cross-party group in the European Parliament, the LGBTI Intergroup, which says it has garnered enough support to approve the largely symbolic resolution.

Liesje Schreinemacher, the vice chair of the group and a Dutch lawmaker with Renew Europe, a liberal political group, said the resolution is timed to roughly mark the second anniversary of the first Polish community, Swidnik County, passing an anti-LGBT resolution.

She also referred to problems elsewhere, including suspicions that a man murdered in Belgium on the weekend was the victim of a homophobic attack.

“We wanted to send a strong signal in Poland that we consider all of Europe to be an LGBTI freedom zone,” she told The Associated Press. “But every European country has work to do.”

Dozens of local governments across conservative eastern and southern Poland began in March 2019 to pass either resolutions declaring themselves to be free from “LGBT ideology,” or family charters defending traditional families in the mostly Catholic nation.

They have proven costly to Poland’s international image, and to the finances of local communities. The EU and Norway — a non-EU member that funds some development in EU nations — have cut off funds for policies they view as discriminatory.

Bart Staszewski, a Polish activist who created an art project on the “LGBT-free zones” that drew the ire of the government and conservatives, said he sees the EU resolution as “important and necessary.”

But he also noted that local governments stopped passing such resolutions months ago and some communities have already withdrawn theirs. Others have passed resolutions declaring support for all types of families.

“There is some very good change,” Staszewski said. “I see this as a very good sign for the future.”

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Gay man beaten to death in Belgium’s first Anti-gay murder in 9 years

Belgium and its LGBT+ community are reeling from the country’s first homophobic murder in nine years.

The victim, a 42-year-old man, was lured to a park before being brutally beaten to death by three youths using Grindr to snare the victim, according to the police.

He has been named by Belgian media as “David P”.

David’s body was found by a cyclist in the early hours of Sunday at a park just outside the northern port of Antwerp, East Flanders. Local police are still in the early stages of their investigation.

Three people have been arrested on suspicion of murder, all of them considered minors under law in Belgium.

A 17-year old boy from Antwerp and two boys from Beveren, aged 16 and 17, are currently in custody under interrogation according to a statement by the public prosecutor of East Flanders on Monday.

Belgian politicians have since condemned the brutal hate crime among them, including Europe’s first openly trans minister and deputy prime minister for the Belgian Federal Government, Petra De Sutter.

De Sutter tweeted: “Disgust. Grief. Compassion. What drives people so far in their hatred that they kill a man just because he likes men.

“Let’s condemn this cowardly murder in the strongest possible terms. And get rid of homo- and transphobia completely, also here with us.”

This is the first murder tied to homophobia in Belgium since the slaying of Morrocan Ihsane Jarfi in Liège on 22 April 2012.

Jarfi’s body was found days after he was abducted outside a gay bar, showing signs he had been tortured to death for hours.

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The case resulted in aggravated sentences for the killers due to the homophobic nature of the attack, the first to see homophobia recognised as an aggravating factor since it was ratified in 2003.

Jeremy Witgens, Jonathan Lekeu, Mutlu Kizilaslan were handed life sentences, and Eric Parmentier was jailed for 30 years over the killing.

This week’s murder has sent similar shockwaves through the Belgian LGBT+ community, which has been facing a steady rise of homophobic verbal and physical violence since 2012, according to the latest report from Unia, an independent human rights institution.

It reported an increase of 38 per cent over the past five years alone

“It is clear that when we talk about the acceptance of LGBT+ people, we must remain vigilant. There remains an undercurrent of negativity towards LGBT+ people.” the report stated.

Flemish advocacy group for LGBT+ people, Çavaria, has since launched a civil action in order to closely monitor the investigation of recent hate crimes.

In a statement, Çavaria said: “It is particularly poignant that this happened. Not only for those directly involved but for the entire LGBT+ community in Flanders.

“After all, a hate crime is an attack on an entire group of people, based on an identity characteristic of that group.”

General coordinator of Çavaria, Yves Aerts, added: “We offer our condolences to the family and friends of the victim.

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“We hope they find support from each other in these difficult circumstances. We hope the whole LGBT+ community can find warmth and love from each other in these difficult times.”

Grassroot LGBT+ activist, Laurent James, 26, has reacted to the events on social media stating: “Despite laws and our reputation as an ‘openminded and liberal’ country, queer people remain at a huge, disproportionate risk of verbal and physical violence.

“We strongly urge secretary of state for gender equality, equal opportunities and diversity Sarah Schlitz and minister of justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne, to not only strongly condemn these attacks but prevent future LGBT+ violence from happening in more than one way.”

Laurent James was inspired to create his social media platform for any queer related content by his own personal experiences of homophobic verbal violence and the lack of outright honest criticism.

“I do feel that there is a rise of homophobia in this country, the community is absolutely shocked by such an act of violence,” he said.

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Queer kids are being offered conversion therapy, right now, in the UK

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Dr Igi Moon is a chartered psychologist whose work focuses on psychotherapy, gender, sexuality and emotion. They are also chair of the Coalition for the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) Against Conversion Therapy, which includes 17 major therapy organisations, such as BPS and UKCP, GPs, NHS England and NHS Scotland, and is pushing for a ban on conversion therapy in the UK. 

Moon told PinkNews why a ban on conversion therapy in the UK is vital, and why all healthcare providers “must come together again and fight to stop any of our community being told they need to be ‘cured’”.

Are you a white cis gay man in your mid-60s living in London? Then you may have been given conversion therapy. Against your wishes. Simply because you needed to be ‘cured’.

Are you a Black British transgender woman aged 18 to 24 years old living in London? Or an Asian British cis gay man aged around 16 to 17 years old living in Northern Ireland? Then you are likely to be offered conversion therapy. Right now. In the UK.

As a way of dealing with this you may want to talk it through in therapy with a counsellor or psychotherapist. It is imperative you know you will be safe. But will you?

Later this year all LGBT+ people will hopefully be supporting the government calls for a complete ban against conversion therapy.

Conversion therapies are techniques used to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity and can range from corrective rape to spiritual counselling to ‘cure’ them of being LGBT+.

In 2018, the government said it would bring forward proposals to end the practice of conversion therapy after its own LGBT Action Plan in 2018 (the largest LGBT+ survey of its kind in the world with 108,000 responses) told us that five per cent of respondents had been offered ‘conversion’ or ‘reparative’ therapy, and a further two per cent had actually undergone conversion therapy. If you take time to look at the data, it is shocking.

We already know from the survey that a whole population of people aged in their mid-60s who identify as gay men and lesbians have been harmed by conversion therapy and we hope the government will recognise the damage these people from our community have gone through and address these issues.

But the survey also tells us our LGBT+ youth are being offered ‘the cure’ of conversion therapy. This is a live issue affecting our young LGBT+ people and it needs to be stopped. NOW.

We know that religious leaders of all faiths must come together and address this issue regardless of how painful and sensitive.

Because faith organisations are by far the most likely to offer (53 per cent) or conduct (51 per cent) conversion therapy, according to respondents in the survey.

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We also know that parents and family members are likely to conduct conversion therapy (16 per cent), so we need to help our young LGBT+ siblings to be aware of this when they are at school. And we need to work with organisations such as Childline to help our young LGBT+ youth know where to turn in a crisis.

However, one shocking finding indicates that healthcare providers or medical professionals also conducted conversion therapy (19 per cent), while a far higher number of trans people reported being given conversion therapy by healthcare providers or medical professionals (29 per cent).

This means that when you see a GP or psychologist or psychiatrist you may be exposed to people who believe you need to be ‘cured’.

This could be by denying treatments such as hormones as part of your gender transition or by a psychotherapist or psychologist believing that being heterosexual or cisgender is preferable to being lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or asexual.

As chair of the Coalition for the Memorandum of Understanding against Conversion Therapy we are united in speaking out against conversion therapy as unethical and potentially harmful.

As sexual orientations and gender identities are not mental health disorders, it would be totally unethical to offer any treatment to ‘cure’ them.

So, we are pleased to represent at least 250,000 medical and healthcare professionals including psychiatrists, psychotherapists, psychologists and counsellors who are affiliated to officially recognised organisations such as the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP), British Psychological Society (BPS) United Kingdom UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC), British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), Northern Ireland Humanists (NIH) and LGBT led organisations such as cliniQ and Gendered Intelligence. Alongside, we have the full support and attendance of NHS England, NHS Scotland and Stonewall.

We are working tirelessly with the government and MPs such as Alicia Kearns– who is doing an excellent job to outline how legislation will look – to bring in a ban and stop conversion therapy before it does more harm.

We have spent the last six years making sure that anyone who has to meet with a counsellor, psychologist, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst or psychotherapist will know that the organisation their mental health professional is affiliated with has signed up to the MoU and is against conversion therapy.

This document can be read here and I would ask you to check it out. We have asked that all organisations dedicate time to training and curriculum development.

Why? Because, believe it or not, very few therapists, analysts, psychiatrists or GPs are trained in LGBT+ healthcare issues.

We ask our organisations to address this shortfall, and if you look at their websites you can see how they are making sure practitioners uphold the highest degree of training.

We aim to make sure you are well informed about the risks of conversion therapy, that healthcare professionals are aware of ethical issues relating to conversion therapy, that all new and existing therapists are trained appropriately, that evidence into conversion therapy is regularly reviewed and that all of us on the MoU work together to achieve these goals.

As a person who was part of that 80s London scene depicted by It’s a Sin, I trained as a counselling psychologist in the 90s to help the mental health of my community as we faced social prejudice, political hatred and the devastation of HIV/AIDs.

We really must come together again and fight to stop any of our community being told they need to be ‘cured’.

We want to live in safety because to live in safety is our freedom and to have our freedom is the greatest form of equality we can share.

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Almost every single LGBT+ gamer has been harassed while playing online, study finds

A new study claims that 88 per cent of LGBT+ gamers who are out to their gaming communities receive some form of harassment while playing online.

The study, from gaming website OnlineRoulette.org, surveyed LGBT+ gamers to examine how inclusive the gaming industry is for the LGBT+ community.×ADVERTISING

Out LGBT+ gamers are 21 per cent more likely to receive harassment than those who have not disclosed their sexuality, with 73 per cent of LGBT+ gamers receiving harassment specifically based on their sexuality. That rises to 83 per cent for lesbian gamers, who are harassed more frequently.

It’s no surprise then that 41 per cent of LGBT+ players will avoid certain games and toxic communities due to the harassment they receive.

That’s not to say there aren’t supportive communities for LGBT+ players, however. Almost one in every two gamers surveyed said that Animal Crossinghas the most supportive gaming community. Call of Duty was ranked second (27 per cent) and Minecraft third (26 per cent).

What’s more, 45 per cent of LGBT+ players said they discovered their sexuality through playing games, showing how important games themselves and supportive communities can be. In fact, 71 per cent said that online communities were more supportive of their sexuality than IRL communities.

Representation is also important to the LGBT+ community, with 81 per cent of LGBT+ gamers saying they were more likely to purchase a game with a queer storyline.

It’s a sadder story in e-sports, however, where LGBT+ professionals earn considerably less than their straight counterparts. The top all-time LGBT+ earner is SonicFox ($676,770), but by comparison the top earning straight e-sports players of 2020 have lifetime earnings over $1million (James “Clayster” Eubanks and Ian “Crimsix” Porter).

While the study may not be surprising to LGBT+ gamers, it certainly reinforces not only how toxic gaming communities can be, but also how vital encouraging and supportive communities are to LGBT+ gamers discovering their identity.

To see the study in full, visit the report here.

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Gay asylum seeker in Mexico receives date to enter U.S.

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A gay man from Guatemala who the Trump administration forced to pursue his asylum case in Mexico is scheduled to enter the U.S. on April 30.

Estuardo Cifuentes in June 2019 asked for asylum in the U.S. because of the anti-gay persecution he suffered in his country of origin. 

Cifuentes on Saturday told the Blade during an interview at the offices of Resource Center Matamoros, a group that provides assistance to asylum seekers and migrants in Matamoros, a Mexican border city across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, that he was one of the first asylum seekers in Matamoros enrolled in its Migrant Protection Protocols program, which is also known as the “remain in Mexico” program. 

Many of the hundreds of people who were living in a camp near the Gateway International Bridge that connects Matamoros and Brownsville on Saturday have asked for asylum in the U.S., but they were forced to pursue their cases in Mexico under MPP.

The Biden administration in January suspended enrollment in the program.

The U.S. since last week has allowed asylum seekers in Matamoros with active MPP cases to enter the country. Cifuentes said the U.N. Refugee Agency called him on Friday and told him when he could come to the U.S.

“At the very least I have a date,” he said. “But it is difficult to know there are two more months … two more months in Matamoros.”

Cifuentes told the Blade in a previous interview that Resource Center Matamoros and other organizations in the U.S. helped him find housing and legal assistance for his asylum case. Cifuentes also runs Rainbow Bridge Asylum Seekers, a program that helps LGBTQ asylum seekers in Matamoros.

Rainbow Bridge runs a shelter for LGBTQ asylum seekers and migrants to which Cifuentes brought the Blade on Saturday. Rainbow Bridge also works with Resource Center Matamoros to provide LGBTQ asylum seekers and migrants access to health care providers and lawyers who can help them with their cases.

Cifuentes told the Blade that LGBTQ asylum seekers and migrants in Matamoros remain vulnerable to persecution and violence that includes members of the Gulf drug cartel who force transgender women into sex work. Cifuentes said kidnappings also take place in Matamoros, although there are not as many as in Tijuana and other Mexican border cities.

The State Department urges U.S. citizens not to travel to Mexico’s Tamaulipas state in which is Matamoros because of “crime and kidnapping.”

“Organized crime activity — including gun battles, murder, armed robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, forced disappearances, extortion and sexual assault — is common along the northern border and in Ciudad Victoria,” reads the advisory. 

Ciudad Victoria is Tamaulipas’ capital city.

“Criminal groups target public and private passenger buses as well as private automobiles traveling through Tamaulipas, often taking passengers hostage and demanding ransom payments. Heavily armed members of criminal groups often patrol areas of the state in marked and unmarked vehicles and operate with impunity particularly along the border region from Reynosa northwest to Nuevo Laredo,” adds the State Department advisory. “In these areas, local law enforcement has limited capability to respond to crime incidents.”

The land border between Mexico and the U.S. remains closed to nonessential travel because of the pandemic.

The Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, looking towards Matamoros, Mexico, on Feb. 26, 2021. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

Cifuentes had planned to live with an uncle in Las Vegas once he received asylum, but he now plans to stay in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.

“I have people now,” Cifuentes told the Blade. “I now have a plan.”

Cifuentes conceded it will take time for the Biden administration to fully undo MPP and other aspects of its predecessor’s hardline immigration policies. Cifuentes nevertheless said he remains hopeful about his future in the U.S.

“I keep believing that it is doing its job,” he said, referring to President Biden and his administration. “I know that it is not easy.”

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Lockdown has caused a mental health crisis among UK’s LGBT+ kids – especially young lesbians

Pippa Sterk, an ambassador for British LGBT+ charity Just Like Us, writes for PinkNews about how lesbians in particular have grappled with loneliness amid lockdown.

I want to shed light on the mental health crisis among young lesbians, but as I sit down to write this, I realise: how can I adequately capture the loss I’ve felt over the past year?ADVERTISING

How can I write about something that is still continuing to impact us, despite the vaccine-shaped light at the end of the tunnel?

Let’s begin with the facts. New statistics show LGBT+ young people are twice as likely to feel lonely and more than twice as likely to worry for their mental health on a daily basis during the pandemic than their non-LGBT+ peers.

The figures show that the lockdown has had a profoundly negative effect on the mental health of young lesbians. Four in five lesbians (78 per cent) of us have seen our mental health get worse through lockdown, compared to 68 per cent of LGBT+ young people generally, and 49 per cent of non-LGBT+ young people.

Almost nine in 10 (87 per cent) young lesbians have felt lonely and separated from the people they’re closest to during the pandemic, including six in 10 (60 per cent) who have felt this daily.

This is compared to 46 per cent of gay boys, 54 per cent of young bisexualpeople and 52 per cent of young transgender people who have felt lonely and separated on a daily basis.

As the numbers show, the loneliness of lockdown has impacted young LGBT+ people disproportionately, and young lesbians in particular.

Being stuck in a house with ​anyone​ can be difficult, no matter how well you get along.

For LGBT+ young people, however, being away from school could mean that they are forced to spend more time in an environment that does not accept them – and that’s hoping the school is accepting, which isn’t always the case.

The pandemic has urged us all to ‘stay at home’, but for many of us young LGBT+ people this is at the cost of our mental health.

Even if our families accept us, there might not be anyone in the household who actually shares​ the experience of being LGBT+.

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LGBT+ safe havens have generally relied on the availability of public spaces, exactly ​because​ we often need to go out to find other LGBT+ people.

However, a lot of the spaces that used to host LGBT+ meet-ups (museums, libraries, community centres) have now had to close.

For lesbians this has a particular impact, as even pre-lockdown, it was difficult to carve out our own spaces. If LGBT+ spaces are scarce, finding spaces that cater specifically to lesbians is like finding gold dust.

This is even further compounded for lesbians who have multiple marginalised identities – lesbians of colour, like me, might not feel welcome in all-white lesbian spaces. Trans lesbians might feel like a mostly cisgender lesbian space is not for them.

Even within fiction, it is difficult to find depictions of lesbian community and lesbian joy that feel authentic. Many TV series and films ​about​ lesbians are not actually created ​by lesbians, leading to an uncomfortable reliance on stereotypes and clichés.

In many cases, this means that lesbians are shown as dangerous to those around them, ​or having tragic lives that often result in death​.

When we are only ever shown that our lives will be difficult, it turns this depiction into a self-fulfilling prophecy: at the very least, we have to be able to ​imagine​ our happiness, if we want to be able to live it.

I am one of the lucky ones. I get along with the people I live with, and I feel safe expressing my lesbian identity with them. I still have an income, which means I still have a roof over my head. Nobody close to me has died of the virus.

Even writing those sentences felt scary, because it sounds like tempting fate, like I’m jinxing the little bit of structure in my life. I am not a superstitious person, but when a situation is so incredibly out of your control, it is necessary to find those last few things that you ​can​ control, and guard them as closely as possible.

One thing that I’ve held onto are my online LGBT+ communities. I am part of an ​LGBT+ community choir​, as well as an LGBT+ student organisation, and my friends in those spaces have been a bigger support than I could ever say.

A particular organisation that has helped me find purpose in the pandemic is ​Just Like Us​, a charity working to improve the lives of young LGBT+ people in schools. They also conducted the research that the statistics above were taken from.

A few months into the pandemic, I joined ​Just Like Us​ in September 2020. I was itching to find a way to help other people during lockdown and remain in touch with my community, so volunteering for an LGBT+ charity felt like the natural thing to do.

In the ambassador programme, young people (age 18-25) are trained to deliver talks in school on what it is like to grow up as an LGBT+ person, and what young people can do to support each other and make each other’s lives easier.

I finished my training in January, and I am set to deliver my first virtual group workshop this week.

With virtual school talks, ​Just Like Us​ can hopefully help ease this mental health crisis for all LGBT+ young people who will finally get to see and hear from someone like them. While it may be difficult to be a young LGBT+ person right now, we can show that there is a community out there that is ready and willing to help each other through tough times.

Young LGBT+ people can and should be dared to imagine that their future will be bright and that there will ​always​ be people who walk beside them on their journey.

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Trans woman arrested, pepper-sprayed and beaten by cop because she didn’t say hello to him

A senior cop in Sydney, Australia has admitted to fighting and arresting a transgender woman because she didn’t say hi to him.

Senior Constable Mark Follington, 61, and his junior colleague were on a patrol in Liverpool’s Golden Fleece Hotel in May 2019 and were asking customers at the pub for their IDs. But Anya Bradford, a trans woman, got up and walked out of a gaming room. The two police officers confronted Bradford as she left the building.×

According to Australia’s 7News, Bradford told Follington to “f**k off” when he asked for her name. She also told the police that she didn’t have an ID and that she had a meeting to get to.

CCTV footage showed Follington grabbing Bradford’s arm to prevent her from leaving which led to the cop shoving Bradford’s head into an ATM. Bradford then kicks Follington and runs off. She is pursued by the cops, and another officer used pepper spray on her before she was eventually handcuffed.https://www.youtube.com/embed/-iIDitykqR0?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1

When asked by the Downing Centre Local Court what had brought Bradford to his attention, Follington admitted it was her “attitude”. He said: “When I was in the room, you could see I was focusing within the room, she had no eye contact with myself.

“People normally come up and say hello.

“She was keeping her eyes down.

“To me, that starts to send a signal to me that this person is trying to hide from me.”

Follington pleaded not guilty to tampering with evidence with intent to mislead a court and four other offences over the 2019 arrest. He also denied deliberately concocting a false story that was used to charge Bradford with assaulting police, saying he filled out police and court documents to the best of his ability.

But he admitted to the court that the story he wrote after violently arresting Bradford was very different to what occurred. Follington said: “At the time of writing this narrative, I did it to the best of my knowledge without having viewed the [CCTV] footage.”

In closing arguments on Tuesday (2 March), prosecutor Claire Robinson said Follington had written “fiction” to justify his actions, knowing he’d been part of an unlawful arrest.

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She suggested the senior constable had viewed the hotel’s CCTV footage shortly after the arrest and “sought to charge the complainant before anyone else had the opportunity” to also view it.

But Ray Hood, the officer’s barrister, argued Follington hadn’t watched the footage and said his client sent a junior officer back to retrieve the CCTV footage. He said: “That doesn’t in any way fit with a person who has an understanding he has done the wrong thing and wants to cover it up.”

The court is due to deliver a verdict on 3 May.

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Four men, including a teen just 16, arrested in brutal murder of a trans person in India

Four men, including a 16-year-old, were arrested Friday (26 February) for the brutal killing of a trans person, Surya Pujari, in northern Mumbai, India.

Pujari, regarded as a trans community leader in the sleepy Malad suburb, was slain 4:30pm Wednesday (24 February) outside the Roomaniya Hotel.

According to Bangur Nagar Police, a group of men jumped Pujari outside the business. A struggle ensued, during which one of the assailants grabbed a knife and slit their neck, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

Witnesses poured out onto the scene, hearing Pujari’s screams for help as they fought the gang off. The suspects fled as passers-by rushed them to a local hospital but they passed away on arrival.

“The murder seems premeditated as Surya’s daily activities were known to the killers,” investigators said at the time. Noting that Pujari’s valuables, including their wallet and jewellery, had been left untouched.

Men ‘tried killing Surya Pujari three to four times over personal enmity’, police say

Rajesh Yadav, 23, Vinay Yadav, 22, and Dheeraj Vishwakarma, 20, alongside a 16-year-old were arrested by authorities.

The four had fled the area after the killing, switching off their mobile phones, but police identified and tracked them down based on local survivance footage and witness statements.

The men, the police said, had been sparring with Surya Pujari, their neighbour, in which the victim allegedly stirred up fights with the suspects daily. The spats, they said, were often petty.

Police nabbed the men after a sting operation, after which the men confessed to the killing, Vishal Thakur, deputy commissioner of Police Zone-12, told reporters.

“We arrested four persons who later confessed to the crime,” he explained. “It was revealed that they had tried killing the victim three to four times earlier over personal enmity but did not succeed.

“A case has been registered against them.

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“They said they were Surya’s neighbours in Prem Nagar and used to get intimidated by Surya every day,” a spokesperson for the force said.

“Surya, who was the head of the transgender community in Malad, allegedly used to threaten them and others in the locality.”

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An LGBT+ person was attacked every three hours in Israel last year, report reveals

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An LGBT+ person was attacked every three hours in Israel in 2020, a sharp spike in violent and hate-fuelled incidents against its LGBT+ community.

An annual report by the Nir Katz Center of the Aguda – The Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel found 2,696 attacks against the LGBT+ community were reported in 2020, compared to 2,125 reported incidents in 2019, a 27 per cent increase.ADVERTISING

The Aguda said their report revealed LGBT-phobia is “still present in all areas of life” including home, work, social settings and government institutions in Israel.SPONSORED CONTENT5 Ways to Protect Your ChildBy Sutter Health

Over half (55 per cent) of all reports of violence against LGBT+ people in 2020 were made by women (cisgender and trans), while men made 33 per cent of reports. A quarter (25 per cent) were by trans people, andwithabout one in 10 (12 per cent) reports made by genderqueer people.

The pandemic pushed anti-LGBT+ violence into people’s private spaces

The Aguda warned COVID turned homes into “pressure cookers” for anti-LGBT+ violence, reducing safe spaces for the LGBT+ community that existed before the pandemic.

Twenty-eight per cent of violent incidents occurred among family, and 25 per cent happened in the area near the victim’s family – three times the eight per cent reported in 2019.

In 2020, over 315 young LGBT+ people were forced out of their home due to abuse or harassment over their sexuality or gender identity, a 16 per cent increase from the year before.

As a result of the pandemic and isolation because of lockdowns, the report warned “LGBTQ-phobia does not disappear or diminish, but takes on a different form and adapts itself to the new reality we have become accustomed to in the past year”.

Nurit Shein, chairwoman of Aguda, called on members of the LGBT+ community to report violent incidents to help the organisation monitor crime and push for change and progress. She told The Jerusalem Post that the LGBT+ advocacy group is “here, on every front and in every arena”.

Shein continued: “We will not be erased from the public and governmental space and we will continue to protect the personal security of us all for a stronger, tolerant, just and inclusive society.”

Two in five (43 per cent) anti-LGBT+ incidents occurred in Tel Aviv and Gush Dan. Reported incidents in northern Israel and Haifa doubled in 2020, rising from 11 per cent in 2019 to 22 per cent this year.

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Violent attacks against LGBT+ people from the Sharon region also doubled. Three per cent of anti-LGBT+ incidents took place in the region in 2019, but in 2020, this jumped to seven per cent of reported attacks.

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175 trans people were murdered in Brazil last year

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At least 175 trans people were murdered in Brazil in 2020 under the watch of Jair Bolsonaro.

2020 was one of the deadliest years for trans people in Brazil since records began, according to advocacy group National Association of Travestis and Transexuals of Brazil (ANTRA). By its tally, a trans person was murdered every two days in a nation of 211 million, CenárioMT reported.×ADVERTISING

Last year, ANTRA said, saw a 29 per cent surge in violence in Brazil compared to the 124 deaths recorded in 2019. From 2017 to 2020, 641 trans people have been murdered.

The vast majority of the victims in 2020 were among the most marginalised groups in Brazilian society: Black people (78 per cent), those aged between 15 and 29 (56 per cent) and those engaged in sex work (72 per cent).

This “vulnerability”, the accompanying ANTRA report said, “exposes” them to violence.

Sao Paulo, Brazil, Gay Pride
Revellers participate in the 2019 Sao Paulo Gay Pride parade. (Cris Faga/NurPhoto via Getty)

“It is exactly within this scenario that the overwhelming majority of  victims are found, having been pushed into prostitution compulsorily due to lack of opportunities, being in high social vulnerability and exposed to the highest rates of violence, to all sorts of physical and psychological aggression,” the report read.

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A startling figure captured the apparent impunity felt by violent transphobes: seven out of every 10 trans deaths in Brazil occurred in a public space.

The southern state of São Paulo saw the highest amount of transphobic killings, with 29 trans people slain.

Ceará followed with 22 murders and Bahia, with 19. All three states in Brazil have for four-consecutive years tallied the highest number of murders.

This violence is unsurprising, activists say, considering the rise of Brazil’s president Jair Bolasonaro, a self-described “proud homophobe“.

And the death toll may be even higher, they warn. Many killings of trans Brazilians are mishandled by the authorities – victims misgendered and deadnames used in police records, rippling into media reports – meaning that deaths can go unreported in Brazil.

Among those that were reported were the deaths of Dorothy de Lima, gunned down after masked men burst into a bar; Joana Domingos, shot seven times as she stood outside her apartment, and Chiara Duarte, who was thrown out of a seventh-floor building.

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