26 April: International Lesbian Visibility Day
To mark the International Lesbian Visibility Day We review the current situation of lesbian women and although things are improving, we are not so well. Last week, the woman who in July of 2019 he molested two lesbians in the Barcelona metro. The accused will not serve her sentence if she pays a fine, compensates the victims and follows a course on human rights, but the sentence is still historical. The unfortunate thing is that similar events happen too often in too many places. Let's remember the case of Charlie graham, a young woman from the United Kingdom who at the age of 20 has been attacked 5 times for being a lesbian.
La State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Trans and Bisexuals (FELGTB) has carried out a survey which shows that one in 10 lesbian women has left their job due to problems derived from their sexual orientation. This research, which, although not representative (139 women were asked), does reveal indicative data on the situation of lesbian women in the workplace. The survey also reflects that this part of the group continues to fear being visible at work and the main reasons include jokes (70%), fear of isolation (56%) and fear of reprisals (46%).
Lesbian women suffer violence in all areas
La Coordinator of Lesbian Policies of FELGTB, Cristina Pérez He recalled that lesbian women suffer daily discrimination in all areas of their life, not only at work: “Many young women still cannot be who they are at home, with their families; others suffer harassment and attacks of all kinds in their schools".
Pérez he also warned that “Furthermore, we continue to be victims of hate crimes and alleged reconversion therapies since they are not yet prohibited in Spain”. Thus, he added that "We are constantly exposed to multiple discrimination as a consequence of machismo and lesbophobia, in addition to other vulnerabilities such as having a disability or due to ethnicity, age or gender identity, among others. There is no one way to be a woman and we are all traversed by several intersectionalities".
Female partners still do not have guaranteed access to the assisted reproduction throughout Spain and they suffer discrimination because they cannot affiliate the creatures on equal terms with the rest of the couples. If they are not married, the non-pregnant woman is forced to adopt her own child. Or outside of Spain it may be that families LGTB + their rights are not recognized with all the legal problems that entails.
So this April 26 we will celebrate the achievements, but we will persist in the fight because the day needs to come soon when we can love freely.
