In the last 50 years, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people have made tremendous strides in the United States, but unfortunately “equality is not yet within reach and in many cases not in sight” for LGBT communities, said the Tuesday a United Nations independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Following a 10-day visit to the United States, Victor Madrigal-Borloz told a UN news conference that he congratulates President Joe Biden for the “very powerful” executive actions taken in the first days of his term to eradicate the discrimination and violence towards the LGBT community.
But he was “extremely concerned” about a series of concerted actions at the state and local levels based “on prejudice and stigma, to attack and roll back the rights of LGBT people.”
Madrigal-Borloz noted that the community suffers when it comes to access to health care, employment, education and housing.
Among young adults ages 18 to 25, for example, LGBT people are at 2.2 times greater risk of becoming homeless; 23% of non-white LGBT adults do not have health coverage, and a recent study found that 43% of gay, lesbian and bisexual participants reported experiencing at least one episode of discrimination and harassment, he added.
Madrigal-Borloz, a Costa Rican legislator and human rights activist, further expressed grave concern about the disproportionate impact of the violence on the community.
He cited the National Crime Victimization Survey, which found that 20.3% of hate crimes were related to sexual orientation or gender identity, a percentage highly disproportionate with respect to the LGBT population of the United States, which according to He said it is estimated between 5 and 8%. On the other hand, she mentioned a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found that bisexual women suffered partner violence to a greater extent than other groups: 46% reported rape and 74.9% said they had been victims of other violence. forms of sexual violence. Madrigal-Borloz described this last scenario as “extremely worrying”.
“The conclusion of my visit at this preliminary stage is that there are significant efforts being made by the current government to dismantle systems of social exclusion,” Madrigal-Borloz said. But there is also “a significant risk that LGBT people will be trapped in what I have described as the maelstrom created by all these actions at the local level”.