by On June 28 in Argentina another edition of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans (Lgbtiq+) Pride was held. Within this framework, a group of researchers from Conicet announced the incipient results of the 1st National Survey of Living Conditions of Sexual and Generic Diversity in Argentina. Although it is not finished yet – there is time to complete it until the end of July – the work is already revealing the first demographic and social data of this group.
In addition, the study also reveals some social observations –sometimes not very encouraging– about our community. For example, four in ten survey participants (40.8%) of all trans, transvestite, non-binary, or gender fluid people said they had experienced “discrimination,” “bullying,” or “harassment” because of their gender identity. , in the last 12 months.
Two other significant data that emerge from the survey are the following: “In the last year, 18.3% of those surveyed stated that they had been attacked or discriminated against by co-workers or clients, either because of their sexual orientation and/or because of their gender identity.
And what is even more complex to understand, 20.5% said they had received poor care or mistreatment in health services or by a health professional due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
“The intention that moves us to carry out this survey – which covers the entire country and in which more than 10,000 people have already participated – is to know a little more in detail, both through general surveys and in-depth interviews, how they are the general and employment difficulties that this group faces on a daily basis. The idea is to obtain data to achieve a better socioeconomic diagnosis of this community”, Manuel Riveiro, a professor in the Sociology program at the UBA, a Conicet scholarship holder and one of the more than fifty professionals from different disciplines that make up the workgroup. And Rivero recorded that “we still don’t know too much about this group of people. We don’t even have a detailed approximation of the numbers in this population.” But the center of the study is to be able to obtain more data on specific labor and health issues.
Mental health. Within this framework, other preliminary data emerging from this social X-ray suggest that this group suffers from “enormous mental health problems,” according to Riveiro. Something that is known to happen internationally, but it is not known what happens locally.
The themes of violence are also highlighted. From the survey it emerges that, “in the last year, 37% of the participants stated that they had received insults, threats, mockery or other aggressions from neighbors or strangers on the street or in public places just because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity”.
Finally, Riveiro explained that they hope that the results of the Survey will help the authorities and those responsible “to understand how specific policies are working, such as trans labor quotas, housing policies, health policies, migration issues, etc., etc. ”.
The survey is still open and can be completed on the web
This research work on social perceptions and this community is not the only one that has been updated. The Luminate organization and the Ipsos consulting team also completed a study on “LGBT+ in politics: perceptions of the electorate in Latin America”, whose objective was to measure the general popular support of people for LGBT+ political representation in these four nations: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. The study reveals that “the Argentine electorate shows, for the most part, support for the presence of LGBT+ people in institutional politics, standing out positively compared to Mexico and Colombia.” And this is framed in that 82% totally or partially defend that this group participates in all social aspects.
54% said they were comfortable with positions of political leadership assumed by lesbians. And in the case of gays, the proportion is 53%, while it drops to 49% for trans.
But, at the same time, contradictory data emerged: 55% of the sample of Argentines supported the increase of community representatives in politics, exactly the average of the four countries. But, at the same time, the “youth” (Argentines between the ages of 18 and 24) are the least likely to support the increase in LGBT+ representation in the four countries: barely half (51%) support the claim. The number of people who stand in line with the quotas is also low: in Argentina, one in three (31%) people said they supported, at some level, the adoption of LGBT+ quotas in political parties. But that represents the lowest figure among the four countries analyzed.
Story of a celebration
“Every June 28 the events of Stonewall are commemorated. These are protests that took place in New York and, basically, it was a revolt of gays, transvestites and lesbians fed up with police corruption and how they were evicted from bars. They went out to protest and ended up taking to the streets. It was a very important event that involved one of the first large-scale riots that marked the political agenda and that continues to be linked to pride to this day,” said Maximiliano Marentes, sociologist and CONICET postdoctoral fellow, and also a member of the team that carried out this Survey. . According to Marentes, on that date the identity, pride and rights of the Lgbtiq+ group are claimed. And he adds that in Argentina this day is celebrated mainly with pride marches. According to the researcher, the oldest is the one that has been carried out since 1992 in CABA. But it is not the only one: “Although it is the largest, there are other marches that have been taking place over the years in different regions of the country and are one of the main manifestations or channels of political participation of the Lgbtiq+ population. and, at the same time, they are a banner of that pride”, he highlighted.
