Admit the problem, give it visibilityis surely the first step on the long road to your eradication. The LGTBI-phobia, a name as complicated as it is difficult to assimilate, is a phenomenon without any order, random, chaotic, inadmissible. As is the sexual harassment. That is why it is so important to expose it, to shed light like the one that, since May 2, aims to illuminate the seven metro stations in Santa Coloma de Gramenetwhere TMB, in collaboration with the Colombian city council, starts a pilot test with a brigade of agents violet that they will attend and will be attentive to any expression of sexist violence.
The data provided weeks ago by the Observatory against Homophobia (OBH) show the urgency of intervene in public spaces, especially those with more unguarded corners or more vulnerable places. As it happens with the suburban. According to this body, in the first quarter of 2022 there have been in Catalonia 170 incidents linked to LGTBI-phobia, 105.9% more than in the same period of the previous year. If you analyze only the transphobia, the increase is 136%. Eugeni Rodríguez, president of the observatory, defended on April 13 the need to “stop this violence and to reverse this data urgently and immediately”.
own protocol
TMB has had its own protocol since May 2021, a document that proposes a series of measures to implement in the metro, on the bus and also within the company itself. In this case, the impulse of the violet agents is born from the Santa Coloma City Council initiative de Gramenet, which has already deployed this figure in other parts of the municipality. It will start with the seven stations of the city and the idea is to go spreading them throughout the metro network. These professionals, who will have previously passed a formation processwill give attention to people who have suffered any type of harassment or who have been victims of sexist violence. They will also be in charge of referring them to the competent authorities.
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They will be, as explained this Wednesday Laia Bonetpresident of TMB and Councilor for Mobility, “the first point of support to the victims” in public transport that should be, he argued, “a safe place for everyone travelers, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender”. This network of violet agents joins other initiatives that have the year 2025 as their horizon, such as the installation of cameras (to date there are already more than 8,000 in trains and stations) with real-time transmission, review and improve the lighting of the facilities, and include video surveillance in the buses, a project that has already started and that, according to TMB, will end in the first quarter of 2023.
The mayor of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Nuria Parlonhe made reference, during the presentation at the bottom stop of L9to the other initiatives already underway in the municipality and has celebrated that the city is “reference population in the fight against sexist and LGTBI-phobic violence” through the network ‘Santa Coloma, Xarxa Violeta‘ in which more than 300 establishments and entities collaborate. The International Transport Union distinguished TMB last February for his work in the fight against discrimination, sexual harassment and LGTBI-phobia. This body awarded its highest award to the metropolitan operator in the category of ‘Diversity, inclusion and gender equality’.