How do we know that you have been a victim of LGBTphobia?
Immediately come to mind the murders, beatings, name-calling.
But what about that little joke?without any malice”? The uncle’s nickname, the games at school, exclusion from the group…
My husband and I, after working hard, managed to buy our dream apartment. We hired a contractor, an architect and, with the sledgehammer in hand, we started the work.
It didn’t take a week: a neighbor came into our apartment, ordered the work to stop –I said ordered it– and then said it was “Very Man, with ‘H‘” to face me and my husband.
“Man with H”? Well, let it go. We thought he meant we were young and he was an old man – at least that’s what we thought.
We let it go and, less than a week later, it was the turn of the neighbor’s wife to call us “black cocada queens”.
And now? Do we let it go?
Not. Following the same deadline as for homophobic offenses, within a week, we forced the building to apply an administrative fine to the couple and went to the police station to register a case for homophobic slander. We enforced the decision of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) of 2019, which equated racial crimes with those with homophobic motivation.
“In fact, the ideal would be for the National Congress to criminalize homophobia with its own legislation, with legislation that effectively serves the entire LGBT population, which still suffers a lot from this violence. But while we do not have specific legislation, this decision of the Supreme Court meets the wishes, at least for now, for us to effectively have a criminal and criminal classification in LGBTphobic violence practices.”. who explains is Heloísa Alves, lawyer and president of the commission on sexual and gender diversity of the OAB-SP .
In addition, as the STF decision is legally recent (2019), there are few cases in which the aggressors were convicted based on crimes of racism and the processes. In other words, we still need more precedents.
And in addition to the normalization of this jurisprudence, a criminalization law that protects us as an LGBTQIA+ community is more than urgent, because crime statistics don’t let us wait.
Last year alone, according to a report by the “Observatory of Deaths and Violence against LGBTI+”, 316 people from the community died violently in Brazil, 285 of them murdered and most of us gays.
Not enough? Come on:
According to a survey of CNN obtained through the Access to Information Law (LAI), in the state of São Paulo alone, in the first quarter of 2022, there was a 16.6% increase in cases of personal injury against LGBTQIA+ people compared to 2021.
I think that if we are discussing this here today, it is a sample that society wants to discuss. May 17th means that you discuss this violence and try to find ways to change this scenario of high levels of violence.
Heloísa Alves, president of the Commission on Sexual and Gender Diversity of the OAB-SP
May 17: International Day against LGBTphobia.
The date coincides with the decision of the United Nations (UN) to remove homosexuality from the list of diseases (the ICD). This is already 32 years old.
Even so, we are attacked every day. And we keep resisting.
In the interior of São Paulo, a couple of lesbian women were verbally assaulted and threatened by a man inside the supermarket, in Lençóis Paulista.
Do you know why? they gave a kiss .
The process is not over yet, but they sought justice and this man has already been sentenced based on the understanding in the STF in both instances to prison sentences.
For the column, we went after all the police stations and service groups specialized in crimes of racism and homophobia in the country and, to our surprise, we discovered that 19 states in Brazil provide services to the LGBTphobia+ community . That is, 70% of the states in Brazil receive and assist community members who are victims of crimes that were motivated by prejudice. .
And not just service, reception is necessary . In the state of São Paulo, for example, police officers receive, even within the academy, training to help identify a crime motivated by homophobia. You need to puncture the bubble.
Our society is prejudiced, so it takes time to deconstruct it. It is not easy, and any police authority is also part of this society. Within the profession, it has to be trained and enabled not only to respect, but as effectively in the case of delegates and investigators to understand what is a crime, what is a second class crime, a crime that deserves special treatment.
Heloísa Alves, president of the Commission on Sexual and Gender Diversity of the OAB-SP
We need to feel safe to report. And confident that there will be punishment.
Galileo … Keep that name with you.
“I take prescription medication, so basically every month I’m at the pharmacy buying it. And when you register, there is a discount on medication and you receive some SMS and email notices. At the beginning of 2021 I received some SMSs with my name, saying ‘Galileo, your medicine is about to expire’. In March, I realized that my name had been changed. So from the moment I received the first SMS in which my name was now written as ‘Gaylileu ”. I looked at that message and was like, ‘Hey, is that a typo?“, tells us Galileo.
Will be? People want to believe so. But after that torpedo came a series of embarrassments and humiliations.
“I thought ‘I’m going to the pharmacy, there’s one next door, and I’m going to buy the medication again to see what happens’. When I went to look at the coupons, it said ‘Gayileu’ there. But the clerk couldn’t pronounce my name. And then when I went to stop by the cashier he asked me: ‘is your name really Gaylileu?’ and I said: ‘Man, that’s not my name. That was a bad joke. “
Once again, it’s no joke. It’s homophobia .
And Galileu, unlike the couple of girls from Lençóis Paulista, did not go to a police station to denounce, but to the civil area to prove the systematic humiliation he suffered.
The publicist came in with a claim for moral damages against the drugstore chain and, after a year and a half, closed an agreement for the company to pay him R$ 40 thousand.
I think the biggest win, when I think about it, is that all of this can inspire other people not to shut up. So, understand that this makes sense: it could be a change in your name in the SMS you received, but if you understand your sexual orientation being taken as a joke, go back, start processing. As small as it is, as small as people think it is, it can’t be a joke. I think that our sexual orientation cannot be taken as a joke by a company, especially in relation to the customer.
Galileu Nogueira, publicist
Galileo donated half of the money to the NGO House 1 , a reception center for LGBTQIA+ people, which we have already shown here in the column. The other half became a scholarship at a marketing school, which he teaches.
To you Galileo, thank you very much for not giving up.
And for the couple of girls, congratulations for not putting their heads down and going to seek justice in the criminal environment – which is so unwelcoming for women, especially the LGBTQIA+ community.
This teaches a lot to all of us.
- Production: Letícia Brito
- Support: Carol Raciunas and Giovanna Bronze
Source: CNN Brasil
