President Sergio Mattarella spoke out in favour of LGBT rights in a message for the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. Meanwhile, ISTAT reports 26% of gay workers face discrimination at work.
Today, Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella spoke out in favour of LGBT rights in a message for the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia.
“This international day focuses attention on the violation of the dignity of a person motivated by them having a different sexual orientation from one’s own,” Mattarella said.
“It is necessary to educate (to create) a culture of non-discrimination; to build a community that eliminates all forms of abuse based on the rejection of differences. Respect for the rights of every person and the equality of all citizens, as laid down by our Constitution, and by international law that we have made our own, cannot be set aside”.
A bill with measures to combat homophobia has yet to become law due to major differences between Italy’s political parties. Read about the Zan bill, here.
Workers face discrimination
In a report issued yesterday by ISTAT said some 26% of Italian gays said they had been penalised at work after declaring their homosexuality or bisexuality in 2020-21.
The national stats agency said the LGBT respondents said they had suffered in at least one of three areas: getting lower pay, being passed over for promotions, and seeing their professional skill-set undervalued.
Furthermore, according to the majority of homosexual and bisexual people (in civil union or formerly in union) living in Italy, discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation is a widespread phenomenon. 71.8% believe that gay and lesbian people are very or fairly discriminated against; 22.8% believe that they are not very discriminated against. Discrimination is perceived to a greater extent by women.
Families often perpetrators of violence against gays
Gays between the ages of 13-29 suffer 60% of the violence aimed against them in a family setting, Gay Help Line in Italy said Tuesday.
Over 50% of reports of violence come from under 35s, the help line said. Violence from family members rose from 35% of all discriminatory attacks in 2021 to 42% in 2022, the line said.
Some 20% of users of the help line between the ages of 18 and 26 asked to be housed in gay shelters set up by the Refuge LGBT organisation. There was also a sharp rise in the number of young gays reporting violence and discrimination from their families.
