Mario is an intelligent lawyer who, when he arrives at a new law firm, finds himself in the dichotomy between naturally making his sexual orientation visible or hiding it for fear of possible consequences. His story is fictional, but it represents the struggle of many LGTBI people to show themselves as they are in environments that are presented as hostile to a greater or lesser extent.
Not all homophobia materializes as a punch or a beating. There are also comments, whispers, rejections, ignoring or even silence that push people to the closet in the work environment, forcing them to stay out of the office. Elefante tour is based on this idea, a short film produced by the COSMO channel in collaboration with Apoyo Positivo and Lasdelcine, producer of Cristina and María José Martín, who have already worked for the channel on Less, about gender violence.
“I read the script and I really liked the character, the theme and what it denounces, so I was encouraged to do it”, comments the actor Javier Pereira, winner of the Goya for Stockholm, who plays the protagonist. “The interesting thing was to go one point further in subtlety. There are behaviors that are normalized and you have to point them out to change them. He is a character who fights so that his sexual orientation is not seen in this environment of high-ranking jobs, which is a world to pretend and where it is still not well seen, so it has to repress itself and not be as it is, but rather separate a social character and who it really is”.
The project is based, according to one of its authors, María José Martín, from two ideas that come together: “On the one hand, the labor discrimination that continues to exist in certain professions and, on the other, the importance of putting yourself in the shoes of the other “.
72% of LGTBIQ people have not come out at work
“We put both ideas together and I think there was a very nice short film about friendship,” he says, “about not keeping quiet in the face of an unfair situation and learning that by being passive in these situations you don’t stop being an accomplice.”
The violence against the LGTBI collective detailed by Elefante is not overly explicit, but rather a set of micro-aggressions that, blow by blow, can mean a world.
72% of LGTBIQ people have not come out of the closet at work, although they have done so in other areas of their lives. The fear of being teased, of ceasing to be valued for their professional qualities or even of losing their job are the most frequent reasons. These data from the ADIM European Project, prepared by the Governments of Spain and Portugal, reflect a reality: in our country LGTBIQ people suffer employment discrimination. And they also have more difficulties accessing the labor market.
The actor Javier Lago, who gives life to Mario’s boss, points out that “one can be marginalized without reaching insults or explicit violence.” “He is a boss who, hiding behind traditional morality, marginalizes an employee who is brilliant. He does not go to extremes of physical violence, but those comments are shown that hide behind being a joke, but that can hurt,” he says he.
“We believe that there are things that are already widely seen or widely told,” explains the other author, Cristina Martín. “For example, explicit physical violence is very represented in the cinema. We like to give it a twist and look for situations that are perhaps more common on a day-to-day basis. In De Less we show psychological violence in sexist abuse and in this In this case, we wanted to show a situation that did not have to be a very high peak of violence, but things that we experience on a daily basis. Many of the viewers will be able to see it and feel identified in that complicit passivity in everyday attitudes”.
Javier Lago, an interpreter with a long career in film, theater and television and openly gay, adds on the issue of ‘LGTBIphobia’: “Spain is not homophobic the same as it is not racist: officially. Now, Vinícius does not stop receiving insults for being black and if a footballer came out of the closet I don’t want to tell you what it would be like. Let’s remember when Míchel or Guardiola were called “faggot” as an insult. Officially no one is homophobic, but there is homophobia in all areas. You just have to look at the canvas that Vox has put up with that hand throwing away the LGTBIQ flag, the feminist one… but also the upsurge in attacks or the comments of some right-wing politicians openly denigrating the collective. All of that influences”.
The LGTBIQ collective and women know that often there are silences that hurt more than a few words
Although the world of theater is not the same as a law firm, Lago comments that “in the audiovisual there is more openness, but there are still jokes or lifelong comments” and tells about his personal experience: “One of the problems that I’ve had has been that, not having a pen, I have had to constantly come out of the closet. People assume that we are heterosexual by default and ask you when you will marry and have children, assuming it will be by a woman”.
From all those small but important situations of ‘LGTBIfobia’ the title of the short film arises. “It is a nod to the viewer: why do we remain silent when there is an elephant in the room, why do we laugh at things that are not funny or can offend someone,” says María José. “Both women and the LGTBIQ collective know that often there are silences that hurt more than a few words. We cannot play crazy, we must be aware when there is an elephant in the room and not be passive in the face of it,” she says.
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