LGBT in Mexico - Societal Prejudices and Terminologies - Violence Against LGBT People

Violence Against LGBT People

Homophobia is very widespread in Mexican society. Statisticians show that between 2002 and 2007 alone, 1000 persons have been murdered in homophobic crimes, as the Chamber of Deputies revealed in May 2007, making Mexico the county with the second-highest rate of homophobic crimes in the world (after Brazil). In a journalistic study by Fernando del Collado, titled Homofobia, odio, crimen y justicia (Homophobia, hate, crime and justice), there were discussed 400 dead between 1995 and 2005, that is to say, some 3 murders a month, but the City Commission Against Homophobic Hate Crimes calculates that only one in four crimes is reported. From January to August 2009, 40 gay people were murdered in Michoacán alone, nearly all of them in the Tierra Caliente area. The great majority are against gay men; from 1995 to 2004, "only" 16 women had been murdered. The crimes are often ignored or investigated with little interest by the police forces, who give impunity to the criminal in 98% of cases. Other forms of less serious violence are classified into the following types, according to a 2007 study by the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM) Xochimilco campus: verbal attack in 32% of cases, sexual harassment in 18%, harassment in 12%, following or pursuit in 12%, and threats in 11%. According to the UAM study, the most frequent types of discrimination "were not hiring for a job, 13 percent; threats of extortion and detention by police, 11 percent; and abuse of employees, 10 percent".