Tackling Challenges? LGBTI Realities and Policies in the University

On 17 May, International Day Against LGBTI-phobia, the act LGBTI Realities and Policies in the University was held. It was presented by the Secretary General. The event was organized by the Observatory for Equality, in collaboration with the Community Involvement Unit. It can be watched on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSFUfE26dtc.

12/05/2021

Last 17 May, the International Day against LGBTI-phobia, the Observatory for Equality, in collaboration with the Community Involvement Unit, organized the act LGBTI Realities and Policies in the University, in the plaça Cívica. It can be watched on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSFUfE26dtc.

The event was presented by the Secretary General of the UAB, Esther Zapater. The act also included the participation of Doctor and Researcher Judit Juanhuix and Gender Biologist and UAB alumni Zoe Garcia.

Esther Zapater showed the need to speak to the university with a discourse of human rights, tolerance, activism and democracy. Then, Judit Juanhuix highlighted the transphobia that still takes place today in academic institutions, and Zoe Garcia criticised sexist and LGBTI-phobic science and presented examples of trans-inclusive ways of transmitting scientific knowledge.

The 17th of May is a day on which we want to keep denouncing and making visible all the aggressions and discrimination that the LGBTI collective suffers on a daily basis. The Observatory Against Homophobia made public the increase of reported LGBTIphobic aggressions by 32.2% compared to the previous year. The data indicate that there is still a long way to go.

Fifteen percent of assaults happen in the education environment or in the workplace, almost 50% (42%) of students have not expressed their sexual orientation for fear of discrimination, and between 60 and 80% of assaults are not reported, due to lack of safeguards and effective management, as well as the overexposure, distress, and anxiety involved in the exposure of a complaint.

The fight to eradicate LGBTIphobia is present in many areas of society. And it is the responsibility of the entire educational community to fight to reduce it until it disappears, by creating safe spaces and effective protocols. Since 2016, the UAB has in place a “Protocol against sexual harassment and harassment on grounds of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression”, which helps to manage and eradicate aggressions.

On a day like today, we also believe that it is necessary to continue supporting the actions and research that are being carried out at the UAB on LGBTI thematic and that contribute to the implementation of the IV Action Plan for Gender Equality at the UAB.

Reduced inequalities
Gender equality