The entity registered 24 attacks against the LGTBI community this January, 20% more than the same period of the previous year
“We implore the judges to treat the case of the transsexual woman murdered this week as a femicide, and to take the case to a court specializing in gender violence“, claimed this Friday at a press conference Eugeni Rodríguez, president of the Observatory Against Homophobia in Catalonia. The entity is studying to appear in the case to make visible the different discriminations that affect the ‘trans’ collective and that this murder has highlighted. “It is a melon that we had not opened before, the public services for attention to sexist violence must be trans-inclusive,” Rodríguez added.
Her partner murdered her in the Besòs neighborhood (Barcelona) last Tuesday. Her name was Sandra, although her ID stated that she was a man. Something that the trans state law, which is not yet in force, wants to solve. Now, her DNI prevents judges from treating her as a woman, in accordance with Spanish law. Otherwise, Sandra’s murder would be a femicide and her case would be considered gender violence.
The Generalitat and the Mossos police investigation will treat this case as a sexist murder, since the Parliamentary law that regulates sexist violence in Catalonia considers that any ‘trans’ woman is a woman, regardless of what the DNI says. “We must emphasize that policies against sexist violence must attend to ‘trans’ people,” asked Rodríguez, who considers that this crime highlights the helplessness of the group.
Whichever court ends up taking the case, the Observatory is studying in appear. If Sandra’s family appears as a private prosecution, the Observatory will accompany her and offer her legal assistance. If this is not the case, and if no Administration appears in this case, the entity will do so as a popular accusation. And it will do so for two clear reasons: “First, to assert that this is a femicide, and second, to at least include it as a case of hate against ‘trans’ people“, Rodriguez explained.
Homophobia grows in January
The president of the Observatory has made these declarations in a press conference where he has presented the monthly balance of the entity. This January, the entity has attended 24 cases of discrimination against the LGTBI collective. They are 20% more than the same period of the previous year. Most cases areattacks against gay men in Barcelona. One of them, the aggression in Sitges on New Year’s Eve, when a group of 10 young people, most of them minors, attacked five homosexual men. “They have all been identified and three restraining orders have been applied that will surely be extended to all of them,” said Rodríguez, who has underlined the great involvement of the Mossos and the Sitges City Council in this case.
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Also they hate attacks and discriminationsuch as graffiti or comments on social networks, have multiplied by three compared to January of last year. “It’s a trend reactionary that we see since the middle of last year with the ‘trans’ law. We are concerned because they legitimize the hate message and can lead to more aggression and normalization of these”, has highlighted Albert Carrascolawyer of the entity.
Another of the projects the Observatory is working on is the awareness in nightlife, space where a large part of the aggressions against the LGTBI collective occur. “We’ve been in the apollo room and we have monitored a case of physical and verbal aggression against a gay man, although more than 1,000 people have passed through our awareness space”, explained the entity’s psychologist, Christian Carrer. there is already three venues and festivals that are getting involved to replicate these projects. “Our job is not only to identify the violence suffered by the LGTBI collective, but to generate changes and stop it,” he added.