On Tuesday 14’th of May, ASSEDEL organized a round table on queerphobia to mark the International Day against LGBT+ phobias the 17’th of May (aimed to raise awareness and provide information on the violence experienced and suffered by queer people).
The event took place at the Gutenberg bookshop in Strasbourg and was attended by around thirty people in addition to our speakers. We like to extend our warmest thanks to Juin 69 (a queer cultural and activist association based in Strasbourg) and MAG (a group of young gays, bi, lesbian and trans+ people) for coming along to put the light on the difficult subject of queerphobia.
We talked about queer identities, the acceptance of queer people in society and the different types of violence affecting LGBTQIAP+ people. We have mentioned the systemic nature of queerphobia. Those threats to queer people are of different orders : from physical to mental and social. The range of queerphobia comes from job discrimination to street assault.
We find specific aspects to those violence that stress out a general and dramatic dimension of any discrimination against a human group : a denial of the human person, in this case due to gender and sex identity.
In our view, queerphobic violence, its causes and consequences, are not sufficiently visible in the media, politics or the public arena. In view of the transphobic attacks relayed and launched by 24-hour news channels and the increase in queerphobic violence over the last 5 years, we wanted to give a voice to those affected by this violence so that they could express themselves freely in a caring and inclusive space.
With this round table, we are reaffirming our desire to fight queerphobic violence, which is a serious violation of human rights.