TRENTO. Arcigay del Trentino strongly condemns the recent homophobic attack that occurred in Val di Non just before New Year’s Eve. Two homosexual boys who were sitting on a bench were addressed with the words “Fucking faggots” and chased in a car by a group of four young people.
“A cowardly act that demonstrates how hatred and discrimination are still real phenomena, also rooted in our society”. The president wrote it in a note Shamar Droghetti. “As the news of the last few days testifies, episodes like this are not isolated, but the result of a cultural climate that has not been sufficiently countered with effective policies at local and national level”.
“We express our full solidarity with the two boys who suffered this vile aggression: no person should ever experience the violence that comes from hatred and discrimination, and as an association we are at their side to reiterate our commitment to creating a Trentino free from ‘homo-lesbian-bi-trans-aphobia’.
“For many LGBTQIA+ people, discrimination is a reality that presents itself in all the nuances of everyday life: the search for housing, crossing school and work spaces, living one’s love in the open. A complaint was made on the Adige on December 18th Trans girl discriminated against when looking for a homea girl to whom our solidarity and closeness goes. In fact, the owners and agencies refused to go to contract when they discovered the unrectified documents, or worse, they backed out, alluding to an occupation in the field of prostitution, even though her work in the cosmetics field in Trento was known”.
“We cannot accept that institutions continue to limit themselves to declarations of indignation without taking concrete actions. The words of Vice President Gerosa and the Province of Trento, although agreeable in form, sound completely empty without a real commitment to combating homo-lesbian-bi-trans-aphobia. We have been asking for some time that the Province takes active action, adopting clear and incisive policies to build a fair and respectful community: launch awareness and information campaigns to combat hatred and enhance diversity, and at the same time work to ensure that schools become places of growth and education in the fight against discrimination, with programs that systematically address the issues of differences and the fight against bullying homo-lesbian-bi-trans-aphobic”.
“Words are no longer enough – concludes Shamar Droghetti, president of Arcigay del Trentino – the fight against homo-lesbian-bi-trans-aphobia must become a political and cultural priority for Trentino institutions. We invite the Provincial Council and Vice President Gerosa to demonstrate with specific policies and regulations to combat discrimination that their indignation is not, as always, just superficial. Faced with the inactivity of provincial and national institutions, we are taking action together with Arcigay Nazionale to launch an Anti-Discrimination Center in the coming months that will become a point of reference for the Trentino area: the LGBTQIA+ community has the right to receive concrete answers without having to fear for your own safety.”
The Italian Left also condemns the recent homophobic attack, which occurred in Val di Non. “We are so used to accepting reactions of intolerance towards those who are ‘different’, wherever their diversity resides, in nationality as in sexuality or in social and political ‘beliefs’ or religious, that only in the face of physical aggression of a certain consistency does ‘pietas’ arise, and hatred does not necessarily have to manifest itself in openly violent acts; incredulous or derisive, that subdued and daily violence that still kills people”, we read in a note. “It is not pity that we need; we do not accept that everything is archived with declarations of concern and invocations of the culture of respect. We do not accept it in particular when this attitude is proposed by those who, like councilor Gerosa, are part of a provincial government which has suppressed courses to overcome gender stereotypes and opposed every bill against homophobia. At every opportunity of debate in the chamber, the culture of rights has come out on the losing end, as if our politicians didn’t realize it that rights have an expansive nature, they are not reduced if they are expanded and their granting also presupposes a counterpart in duties, a fact that should be reassuring for those who fear “dangerous drifts” in the face of attacks that are the result of misogyny and homo-lesbianism. transphobia, we must understand that intense and lasting work is essential that can undermine prejudices on a cultural level”, so Sinistra Italiana. “Not only should the school be able to take advantage of courses for students but, even more so, a good provincial government should take responsibility for ensuring that all school communities become research laboratories on the prevention of any form of discomfort, through training of teachers to teaching methodologies such as to create a daily relational climate suitable for the training of future aware citizens”, says Renata Attolini, Provincial Secretary of Sinistra Italiana and member of Alleanza Verdi and Sinistra del Trentino.
(photo Ansa)