Washington DC, May 17, 2022.– Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and sexually diverse identities throughout world history have been persecuted for their gender identity and sexual orientation. Although there are some advances in the area of human rights, there are still some societies that pathologize and criminalize LGBTI+ people.

Until May 17, 1990, the World Health Organization (WHO) considered homosexuality a mental pathology, as recorded in the first version of its International Classification of Diseases Manual (ICD) of 1948. Likewise, since 1975 they defined transsexuality as a mental disorder. Only in 2018, with the ICD-11 version, did they remove it from the list.

Therefore, every May 17, the LGBTI+ community conmemorates the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia and the historic decision of the WHO that contributed to the depathologization and recognition of homosexuality as a natural aspect of life and sexuality. However, even in many parts of the world, sexual and gender diversity is condemned by religion, law and society, and in some instances with the death penalty.

The historical damage is irreversible and the best thing that remains to be done is to pay off that historical debt that has placed the LGBTI+ community in a context of particular vulnerability.

Bodies as territories of violence

“Our bodies, our lives, our rights” is this year’s slogan chosen by the organization May 17th to commemorate this date. “A topic that reminds us that many of us around the world experience LGBTQI-phobia firsthand every day and that our bodies are being abused, ruining our lives,” describes its website .

In Latin America and the Caribbean, at least 370 murders of LGBTI+ people were recorded in 2020, a statistic that has increased every year since 2014, as pointed out in the latest report by the network of civil society organizations Sin Violencia LGBTI. On a daily basis, many forms of violence are practiced on bodies that do not meet the expectations of the heterosexual cisnormative gender binary, with death being the most violent form of attack on the lives of people of sexual and gender diversity.

LGBTI+ Struggle

Thanks to LGBTI+ leadership and the sum of contributions from human rights organizations, today there are more visible and non-visible people joining the LGBTI+ fight against inequality, violence and structural discrimination.

However, it is everyone’s commitment to build and defend a plural society, where the various ways of expressing, thinking, acting, loving and being are respected. This is a fight of everyone, for everyone and that we must all make our own. As Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah, director of Oxfam, mentions in an opinion column for Equal Times, the defense of dignity, freedom, identity and life are rights intrinsically linked to the rights of each one.

In the global campaign in favor of equality, social justice and non-discrimination for reasons of sexual orientation and gender identity, we must all be a part of it.

Actions against hate and violence

This May 17, at Race and Equality we commemorate the right to live free of violence and with dignity. Although there are regulatory changes and legal recognition in many countries, we believe that it is not enough. We are firmly convinced that the true social transformation will come when, from different sectors, we begin the real work to deconstruct the thoughts and attitudes of societies that do not allow all people in their diversities to live fully and safely.

For this reason, we urge States to combat the stigma, discrimination and state violence that make precarious the existence of LGBTI+ citizens and those in human mobility allowing for rampant police abuse, impunity in hate crimes, discrimination, violence in educational  and health spaces, torture, sexual and reproductive violence, mistreatment, unjustified procedures and a long list of actions that disguise and justify violence to continue keeping them marginalized.

All this has real, serious and adverse effects on the comprehensive security of the LGBTI+ population, on access to work, on their development, on education and on physical and mental health that can no longer be tolerated. The efforts of all States and societies are needed to eliminate the LGBTIphobic environment and guarantee the human rights of the LGBTI+ population. This will not be achieved without the political will to actively listen to, understand, and actively address the specific needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, and other diverse identities.