Imagine that you enter some of your characteristics and activities that you enjoy doing on a search engine. You find negative things, insults and hatred against people like you. They are not facts. Unfortunately, prejudices tend to be shared faster on the internet and beyond it. Adults can resort to defence and care strategies they have built over time to continue sustaining themselves, but the situation becomes more difficult for children and adolescents. That's why transgender, transexual, intersex, non-binary, bisexual, lesbian, and gay people continue to act to build a world of peace, dignity, and respect for diversity, often against the current of hate speech.
Láurel Miranda is a journalist, teacher, and proud transgender woman. She questioned her identity for ten years, but she had the support of family and friends, which allowed her to have a loving transition, but not without difficulties. The streets still have risks, but the digital world has been more hostile and violent towards her. She shared this during a couple of conversations between people from Mexico City and Johannesburg, South Africa, on the occasion of the International Day for Countering Hate Speech (June 18), organized by the United Nations Information Center (UNIC) in Mexico, the UNESCO Representation for the country, and the Museum for the United Nations (UN Live), in the context of LGBTIQ+ Pride Month and following the campaign #RevolucionaElAlgorimo with Racismo MX.
The effects of hate are not new, but they spread more widely and rapidly through communication technologies and digital platforms, allowing them to become a method for the worldwide dissemination of divisive, extremist, and violent ideas and actions. Láurel explained that children and adolescents are most vulnerable to discrimination, hatred and violence in digital spaces.
Over 80% of people between the ages of 7 and 11 and nearly 100% of those aged 12 to 17 use the Internet in Mexico, and Media and Information Literacy have not been in formal education. Children and adolescents are discovering the world and themselves, and they can access memes, videos, and multiple contents that can be false, biased, fanatical, or intolerant, based on prejudices or humiliating. That content not only can deny their experiences and feelings. It can also denigrate them, affecting their mental health.
The threat is even more critical for transgender children and teenagers,
who often experience higher rates of suicidal ideation and attempts compared to the population with normative sexuality (heterosexual and cisgender), and even in contrast to other sexual dissidence groups. They also face a higher risk of being victims of bullying and school violence, lower academic performance, and higher dropout rates. Digital isolation is not an option. Digital content transcends daily conversations and violence in the physical world. Countering hate speech is urgent.
Regarding non-binary gender identities and expressions, Hector Dibakoane, a storyteller and cultural curator in Johannesburg, emphasized during the dialogue that many indigenous languages do not have pronouns that mark a gender difference, as in the nine non-Indo-European official languages of South Africa. He invited recognizing the preserved colonization's effects in our days. A call that United Nations Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, Víctor Madrigal-Borloz, has reiterated in his 2021 report:
... evidence suggests that, in many countries, the rigid understandings of the male/female binary as a main ordering social principle are the result of colonialism
In 1658, 13 individuals were incriminated and sentenced to be burned due to "Pecado Nefando" (a term referring to sodomy) in what is now Mexico City. Their identities were recorded as men, as Blacks, Mulattos, Mestizos, Indians and one Spaniard, into the General Archive of the Indies of Seville. More than three centuries later, the gender identities and expressions of Cotita de la Encarnación, Estampa, Zangarriana, Conchita, Luma, Rosas, Martina, La Moros, and others in the colonial period could be recognized in today's era as transgender, transexual, or even non-binaries. However, racism and the denial of cultural diversity have hindered the recovery of this vast documentary heritage, limiting access to information and the development of sciences.
One of the actions to counter hate speech is to reclaim these stories and promote plural representation in public and media spaces for individuals who are often targeted by hate speech, especially when they do it by themselves. It is not always easy.
Láurel indicated that, although colleagues and supervisors respected her, she faced discriminatory practices and censorship when she proposed media coverage or published journalistic content about issues and demands of LGBTIQ+ people, particularly about transgender women's rights. That problem concerns freedom of expression and access to information rights for all people.
These challenges are also present in the arts. The Visual artist Fabián Cháirez, who also participated in the international dialogue with Johannesburg, presented his work "La Revolución" (The Revolution) in 2019. The painting displayed a brown and moustached man, partially naked, riding a horse, wearing high heels and a Charro's hat. The artwork addressed social revolutions and sexual diversity's presence, such as Colonel Amelio Robles, a transgender man in the Mexican Revolution, along with many others who remain anonymous or forgotten. However, the painting was associated with the Mexican figure of Emiliano Zapata, leading to hate demonstrations outside the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City, where it was exhibited.
Even if the arts offer great opportunities for expression and to show different body types, realities, and ideals, Cháirez acknowledged the persistence of obstacles due to racism and phobias against sexual diversity. Especially when dark-skinned and black persons, still racialized nowadays, make their way into privileged spaces.
They are used to seeing us in certain sectors and segregated. They don't like to see us occupying power positions. But it is something we must continue working on
During the protests surrounding Cháirez's artwork, different collectives and institutions advocated for freedom of expression and creation, including the Diversity Coordination of the Secretariat of Inclusion and Social Welfare of Mexico City, led by Ulises Pineda. He proposed that LGBTIQ+ people shall reflect on and act in unity against hate speech.
Spots created and designated precisely for LGBTIQ+ individuals always be essential. However, it is necessary to ensure safety in more additional spaces to promote inclusion from diversity and to recognize the issues and needs they face. For example, respect relationships between or involving transgender and non-binary people, practice and use correct pronouns that are not usually aware by cis-heterosexual men and women, or cisgender homosexual or bisexual men and women, as Ulises explained.
On the other hand, the social scientist also mentioned that the most prominent and least questioned public policy is related to gay men, which requires both external and internal review, something that lesbian women and trans people have already done in their political advocacy processes. Besides, it is crucial for gay people to analyze and change, as a group with certain privileges, towards other practices to promote affirmative and compensatory actions for other dissident identities, specifically for transgender and non-binary individuals, whose public policies are often attacked by expressions of hate with rhetorical subtleties.
Recognizing that access to arts education is limited by economic factors, Cháirez organized a drawing workshop for LGBTIQ+ people, and the intention to respond to another and specific issue: many cisgender and transgender individuals do not interact beyond parties or when using specific services. He created the space for longer and more meaningful interactions, aimed at active listening that leads to action.
If all diversity is not recognized, the enjoyment of education, arts, sports, and many other fields are at risk for all people and inequalities are perpetuated. This case is evident in sexual and reproductive rights when legal instruments do not mention pregnant and menstruating individuals alongside women, creating an interpretative gap that can restrict, delay or deny trans men's healthcare rights.
Although there is no universal definition of hate speech, the United Nations defines it as:
any kind of communication in speech, writing or behaviour, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, in other words, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, colour, descent, gender or other identity factor
Proposals from the dialogues in Mexico City and Johannesburg, South Africa
Countering hate speech with special attention in the digital sphere, and considering its greater accessibility and risks for children, adolescents and youth, acknowledging its impact on mental health.
Recovery of collective memory and knowledge systems of indigenous peoples regarding sexual diversity.
Develop equitable public policies for LGBTIQ+ individuals, addressing primarily the needs of transgender and non-binary people.
Enhancing safety in all spaces for LGBTIQ+ people to encourage a harmonious sharing of spaces and empathy from normative sexual people (without undermining the vital function of exclusive LGBTIQ+ spaces), guided by dignity, respect for diversity, interculturality, and driven questioning by genuine curiosity, while avoiding intolerance, extremism, and hatred.
Support and fortify artistic spaces as strategies for participation, representation, and inclusion.
Promot the incursion of awareness-raising, affirmative, and inclusive actions in sports.
