FUMI HOMMA for THE FACE

To be a minority, in a society that invented discrimination for the specific purpose of demonising people who are minorities, and then conceived an erratically “integral” system of deprivation, is to bear the strain of a shameful history that many would rather defy. Discrimination, I was freshly reminded, has internalised a vortex of oppression that proves the falsehood of our claims of progress. The outcome is clear, resulting in a vile attempt to walk away from the numbers and statistics and instead focus on the people who endured the brunt – their flesh and blood, hopes and futures.

For LGBTQ+ communities, the indicators of how prejudice works are dismantled by data: a recent American audit found that as many as 1 in 4 LGBTQ+ individuals in the U.S. reported experiencing some form of discrimination in 2016. In Stonewall’s LGBTQ+ in Britain Work Report in 2018, 35 per cent of LGBTQ+ employees said they had hidden the fact they are LGBTQ+ at work for fear of discrimination (a grievous benchmark that intensifies racial disparities). Moreover, figures highlight that 10 per cent of black, Asian and minority ethnic LGBTQ+ employees had been physically attacked by customers or colleagues in 2018, and 12 per cent had been attacked by customers or colleagues because of being trans. Like social justice, race is a system which intersects the affiliation of LGBTQ+ rights and denial. This research is important because, as well as these shocking headline figures, it also examines experiences unique to ethnic groups.
 

…continue reading at VOGUE ITALIA.