The Le Refuge foundation, which helps LGBT + people, believes on franceinfo that the plan against hatred presented by the government on Monday July 10 could have “gone further”, in particular on discrimination against transgender people.
Published
Reading time : 2 min.
:quality(50)/2023/07/10/64abdfd23b593_000-32dp3br.jpg)
While the government is presenting its plan to combat anti-LGBT+ hatred and discrimination on Monday, Pacôme Rupin, director general of the Le Refuge foundation, estimates on Monday July 10 on franceinfo that transidentity is “one of the subjects on which perhaps the plan could have gone further“.”We ask for more efforts from the public authorities“, he urges, evoking “in particular the fact of facilitating the procedures for changing civil status“.
The Refuge wants more education on transidentity
The former deputy explains that his association welcomes in its centers “many transgender people who are extremely discriminated against, rejected by their families or more generally by society“. The director general of the Le Refuge foundation considers that the protection of transgender people “deserves a specific fight and awareness of the general public“. He indeed regrets that the general public “still largely misunderstands what transidentity represents“.
Pacôme Rupin, however, welcomes the progress made possible by the 2023-2026 government plan to combat hatred and anti-LGBT+ discrimination. From the start of the next school year, children from homoparental families will be able to specify in their administrative documents that they have two fathers or two mothers. The director general of the Le Refuge foundation believes that this measure “is not at all unusual“. He reminds that for homoparental families “it’s quite violent not being able to fill out a form with the reality of their family situation“.”It was really time to move on this subject“, launches Pacôme Rupin. He wishes that “all administrative procedures are inclusive and take [en compte] all the realities today of families“.
“The new funding is going in the right direction”
The government is also planning an envelope of 10 million euros intended for the opening and strengthening of reception centers for LGBT + people, which Pacôme Rupin welcomes. He recalls that the Le Refuge foundation has already “about twenty reception areas spread throughout the territory“. Its managing director considers that it “there is a need for these centers to exist in the overseas territories“. Pacôme Rupin highlights the need for these centers for “victims of LGBTphobia” who need “to be able to go to a place” in order to be “taken care of, listened to and accompanied. This new funding is a step in the right direction and will make it possible to finalize the territorial network“, he argues.
Pacôme Rupin also highlights the “training efforts made in recent years” in public administration. The Le Refuge foundation, which has a training and awareness department, notes that it is “enormously solicited in recent years by the National Education, hospitals, police and gendarmerie“. Its managing director regrets that said that these efforts are not “not yet at scale and not across all levels of administration“. For Pacôme Rupin, the training of these agents “has its importance“because reception in a police station”when you are the victim of an LGBTphobic act will change the situation and will push you to file a complaint“. It is therefore necessary that LGBT + people “be reassured and know that they will find people trained and able to listen to their problems and therefore to respond to them“, he adds.