Nine out of ten teenagers in Ibiza have witnessed in their high schools homophobic insults, taunts, threats, and even physical aggressions such as throwing or breaking things belonging to another person who identifies as LGTBI. These “worrying” statistics are the findings of the report prepared by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Addictive Behaviors by the Consell de Ibiza (Cepca), presented yesterday by the Councilor for Social Welfare and Human Resources, Carolina Escandell, and the director of Cepca, Belén Alvite.
Homophobic behaviour at school and on social networks
A figure that also implies “suffering”, according to the director of Cepca, who highlighted that 92% of the students have observed homophobic behaviors both at school and on social networks: insults (50.4% and 49.6%), teasing (55.6% and 44.4%), threats (37.5% and 62.5%), isolation (52.5% and 47.5%), hitting (32.5%) and throwing things (60.3%), among other disparaging attitudes. “These are not just numbers, they are people”, remarked Carolina Escandell.
“The ugly part of the study is this. When I was a teenager and we had little information on this topic, I saw people laughing at someone and making jokes when they were not there, but I never saw them throwing or breaking things, or hitting them. However, now they do see it,” said Alvite. “We are making progress in some things and going backwards in others. In values of respect we are not advancing as we should”, said the councilor.
‘Adolescents of Ibiza: neither clear nor easy’, this is the title of the survey carried out by Cepca during this school year, in which 1.823 students between 14 and 18 years old (51% male and 49% female) from all the municipalities of the island have participated, regarding behaviors, attitudes and opinions towards the LGTBI collective.
Only 15.7% of the adolescents consulted identify themselves as a member of this collective, of which more than 90% have told someone, as opposed to the remaining 9.9%Â who have not..
The people they first go to explain it to are usually, in order, their best friends (best female friend 79.3% and best male friend 56.8%), mothers (46.6%), fathers (33%), sisters (26.5%) and, lastly, brothers (18.4%). In practice, in all cases, the reactions are very positive as the vast majority accept it without problems.
However, the director of Cepca, showed yesterday her concern about the differences between men and women when it comes to acceptance, which is more difficult in the case of men. Thus, disagreement with the image of two men kissing reaches 21.5% among the boys surveyed and is only 6% among girls. If two women are kissing, the percentages of disagreement drop to 13.2% and 5.5%. The same difference is found when it comes to not accepting sexual relations between men (25.8% and 6.6%) or between women (16.6% and 6.6%); sex change operations (26.8% and 7.5%) or marriage between people of the same sex (19.5% and 6.5%).
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.