Round Table Discussion: Violence Against LGBT Population

24 May 2006

On the occasion of the Second International Day of Fight Against Homophobia, the Kontra lesbian group organized (Zagreb, May 20), a round table discussion on the topic Violence Against LGBT Population: Challenges Faced by LGBT Community and Croatian Society and Overview of Situation in the Region. The European House Zagreb gathered LGBT activists from Croatia, B&H, Slovenia and Serbia, with the aim to attract the public attention to the problem of homophobia in our societies and present the efforts of activists to create safe space for sexual and gender minorities in the unsafe environment.

Kontra presented the results of the survey conducted inside the Croatian LGB community at the end of 2005. The survey tested the distribution and structure of violence against LGB persons provoked by their sexual preferences, the relation between such experiences and the mental wellbeing and self-respect, as well as the openness of lesbian, gay and bisexual persons to their social environment regarding their sexual orientation. The poll sample included 202 people from the LGB populations of Zagreb, Rijeka and Osijek.

The results show that one in two gay, lesbian or bisexual persos in Croatia sufferred violent attacks because of their sexual orientation in the past four years. Over that period, almost 40% of the participants in the survey faced insults and curses, unsolicited sexual approaches (27,9%), threats of physical violence (20%), while 14% of the polled actually suffered physical violent assaults. Most victims faced various forms of violence, repeatdly, over the past four years.

Violent acts were mostly committed by assailants unknown to the victims, in public places, followed by violence committed by LGBT persons' family members. In addition, the survey demonstrates that the people subjected to serious forms of violence in the past four years are far more anxious, depressive and have lower self-esteem that persons who suffered from verbal violence and those that had no experience of violent incidents. The victims rarely seek help from the family, the police or professional assistance (psychiatrists, psychologists, general practitioners), and usually turn to their friends for help.

The homophobic violence is a generic term that covers various forms of behaviour that aim to humiliate or injure the integrity, health and safety of other persons just because of it having lesbian, gay or bisexual preferences. This violence is a social problem which is rarely discussed in public and is often percieved as a minor problem of a deviant minority. Lamentably, it often happens for actors charged with providing assistance to victims of violence don't offer adequate assistance, either due to lack of knowledge or because of prejudice towards LGBT population.

"Homophobic violence doesn't strike only individuals � direct victims of assaults and discrimination, but also their partners, friends, family, the whole community and the society in general", said activists for rights of sexual and gender minorities and expressed the need for establishment of systemic and networked assistance for LGBT persons, as well as networking with professionals that offer assistance to victims of homophobic violence.