Around ten LGBT associations urged the executive, Friday May 17, to intensify the fight against LGBTphobia in schools, a year after the death of Lucas, 13, whose suicide in 2023 sparked national emotion.
“It is more than ever time to act,” declares Julien Pontes, of the Rouge direct collective, coordinator of this appeal launched on the occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. “There is a glaring lack of resources in national education in terms of personnel and available time to fight against LGBTphobia, to be attentive to the situation of certain students and to provide feedback,” he adds. These questions must be taken seriously. »
An inter-association meeting is planned for the afternoon in Paris to “build a bill” in the presence of around ten deputies, including Ségolène Amiot (LFI), Sabrina Sebaihi (EELV), Eric Martineau (Modem), Raphaël Gérard (Renaissance) or even Fatiha Keloua-Hachi (PS), said Mr. Pontes.
Associations and those close to Lucas are mobilizing
On the associations side, InterLBGT, Stop Homophobia, Le Refuge and the Human Rights League will notably be present, alongside the mother of Lucas, a 13-year-old teenager who committed suicide on January 7, 2023 in Golbey ( Vosges). She should be received Friday morning by the Minister of Education, Nicole Belloubet.
Those close to Lucas had denounced, at the time of his death, acts of harassment, revealing the mockery and homophobic insults of which the teenager had said he was the victim from students at his college.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, 8% of the 2,870 anti-LGBT crimes or offenses committed in 2023 were committed in a school. The latest report from SOS Homophobia notes 94 cases of LGBTphobia in schools reported in 2023, ranging from insults to harassment.
Among the measures demanded by the associations is compulsory training, both initial and ongoing, for education staff on the issue of LGBTphobia. The associations also call for the effective implementation of education on sexual and emotional life, included in the law since 2001 but little applied in practice, and for an increase in budgets devoted to the fight against school harassment in the sense wide.