This May 17th, the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia 2023 has been celebrated. And Lanzarote also wanted to participate in it.
The Lánzate de Canarias Association, which has one of its headquarters on the island, has organized a conference in Arrecife this Wednesday to address various issues related to inclusion, rights, diverse education and the inequalities faced by the collective.
From La Voz, we have spoken with Emma Colao, legal advisor and the first trans candidate for the Presidency of the Government of the Canary Islands for Reunir Canarias, who participated in the conference this Wednesday.
The talk in which she has taken part focuses on addressing the difficulty that exists for the trans community when it comes to getting a job. Colao makes it clear that the objective of these meetings is "to dismantle the hypocrisy" that makes public and private administrations, etc. "take charge of the struggles of the collective for only one day" and the rest of the year "assume that we exist" but do not do "our demands and battles".
She states that it is necessary to "talk about the reality that occurs not only in the workplace", and about "collective negotiations" in which "the voice of the LGTBI+ collective is not heard and is oppressed".
"We cannot let it be seen that we are all super "LGTBIFriendly"" and then "when it comes to renouncing and stop assuming spokespersons so that the trans people themselves do it, it turns out that it is not so appropriate", she complains.
"I am intervening in these conferences to draw the attention of public administrations and social agents, who have failed us", she makes clear. Without losing sight of the fact that "society decides not to look", she says.
According to the candidate, the talks are being very well received. "People are showing interest in the interventions of today" and that "allows them to become aware". But she adds that "it is important that what has been said here materializes" and that it leads to "employability" and that "vulnerability, precariousness and unemployment" in the trans community are left behind.
"It is time to start materializing what is said that is going to be done", she clarifies. Since there is a "brutal dropout rate in education, training processes and contribution careers", she acknowledges.
Her vision is based on the fact that things have changed "from criminalizing us to making us vulnerable", she says. "There is no structural change for the collective to actively participate in their working lives" and of course, "there is no talk of the mental health of the collective, nor of the labor reality". "Nothing is said that touches the problem", she clarifies.
In addition, she demands that the process of labor insertion stop being converted "into procedures agreed upon with prior notice", and "that the interviews not be done in front of the bosses", as happens on most occasions. She recognizes that the key is "not to show the gender", so that "it cannot be identified" and to deliver the resumes "empty of identity content".
"There are those who do not want to enter job interviews so as not to come out of them psychologically worse"
She recognizes that "trans women have the highest unemployment rate" within the collective. But as a general rule there is a clear problem, so much so that "there are those who do not want to enter job interviews so as not to come out of them psychologically worse".
She admits that as a general rule "society has determined that trans people are not suitable to be in front of the public". And she also tells us about her own experience looking for a job. "When I identified myself for a job interview, they even asked me if I was mocking them."
Although other times, companies try to use that hiring to get "social profitability", and ask for "disability certificates". "To the point of saying that trans people have a degree of disability", she criticizes.
As for the homosexual collective, it depends a lot on whether the person "has a feminine personality or not". If they have it, "they will have more chances of suffering that labor discrimination" and on the contrary, if they have "a more heterosexual gender expression", "they will not have more problems", she points out.
Something that, as she says, can happen equally for heterosexuals with "a more effeminate personality" who can "also suffer that discrimination", she includes.
"In Lanzarote and the Canary Islands there is still a brutal transphobia"
She confirms that "in Lanzarote and the Canary Islands there is still a brutal transphobia". "GayPride is celebrated" but "it is capitalized with the LGTBI movement, as a marketable product and the Government of the Canary Islands speaks of the community as if it were talking about what happens in a neighborhood of Ivory Coast", she comments.
For example, "the autonomous Trans Law was approved but it has no financing, no development, no regulation", she laments. It is called "pinkwashing", "a brushstroke to make it seem that they want to do something when in reality they want to omit it", she concludes.
