International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia was commemorated on Wednesday 17th of May. For this reason, the Department for Equality and Diversity of the Mijas Town Hall is launching the ‘We Love’ workshops, aimed at students in 2nd year high school in the municipality with the aim of preventing bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity. 

According to studies, more than 50% of cases of bullying are due to sexual orientation and gender identity, with the 12-15 year old age group being the one with the highest incidence of this type of bullying. Hate crimes are on the increase and to prevent and eradicate them, the Town Hall “will continue to launch our coeducation plan in secondary schools, understanding that we must give all the necessary resources to our young people so that this LGTBI-phobia disappears once and for all, which is why we will run these workshops called ‘We love’, which are aimed at secondary school students in the seven secondary schools in our municipality”, said the councillor responsible for the department, Natalia Martínez (PSOE). 

The association ‘Apoyo Positivo’ will be in charge of developing these workshops, 35 in total, which will be held in the coming weeks in the schools of Mijas. 

The promotion and launching of these workshops has been presented on the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, a day that we should still highlight in the calendar because, as Martínez stressed, “it is nothing new, it is the norm, in 2022 hate crimes have increased in Spain and, unfortunately, 90% of these crimes are still not reported because of the victim’s own fear of feeling rejected when they go to file a complaint, because they think they will not be believed”. 

Agents for change 

The workshops, as the councillor points out, will also be intended to offer young people the necessary skills to become agents of change both inside and outside the school to deal with situations of harassment in their immediate surroundings.

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