The path of a trans person to establish himself as a professional is crossed by transphobia from school to staying in a job, reveals a survey released this week in Rio de Janeiro by Grupo Pela Vidda, which interviewed transgender men and women.
With friends, teachers and family members as the main aggressors during training, and basic rights such as the use of an adequate bathroom often disrespected in the workplace, half of the interviewees reported living with depression and 60% said they had already thought about suicide.
The survey was carried out by the TransVida project, by Grupo pela Vidda, with support from the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights, and conducted by anthropologist and activist Fabrício Longo. The final report warns that transphobia reduces the possibilities of access and survival of trans people, and the coordinator of TransVida, Maria Eduarda Aguiar, argues that this form of prejudice prevents a part of the Brazilian population from developing its workforce and professional talents .
“We have a large number of people in our country who are being prevented from producing and working. And it’s not because they aren’t capable. It’s because of discrimination,” she said.
Prejudice
The research report highlighted that, in addition to combating prejudice, it is necessary to educate employers about the need to hire these people and, in the case of human resources professionals, about the particularities of this population that need to be considered in the hiring process and after the admission.
“It is also necessary to ensure that the other employees of the company understand these vulnerabilities and create a healthy environment for their daily work”, stated the text.
The study had an online questionnaire and face-to-face interviews were also conducted. In order to reach the vulnerable population, the team responsible for the research visited the shelters for the trans population, such as CasaNem and Casarão Sementes by Luana Muniz, in addition to promoting name and gender rectification efforts and inviting participants to respond to the survey. . In all, 147 responses were collected, most of which were trans women (42.9%), black (31.3%) and aged 19 to 29 years (55.1%).
Only 15% of the survey participants reported having a formal job, while 15.6% have formal self-employment and 27.2% have informal self-employment. Considered the last resort for survival of the trans population in many cases, prostitution was the paid activity of 14.3% of respondents.
Education
The questionnaire allowed respondents to mark all the violence and discrimination suffered during training, and only one in four said they had never suffered discrimination, while 36.7% said they had been victims of transphobia; 34% of homophobia; and 10.9% of racism.
The most common forms of violence were disrespect for the social name (27.9%), psychological torture (21.1%) and prohibition of using a bathroom appropriate to their gender (20.4%). Physical violence was reported by 15.6% of respondents and 16.3% experienced sexual harassment or rape.
Those responsible for these attacks during the training period were mainly close people: friends or acquaintances (38.4%); teachers, coordinators and school directors (32.9%); fathers, mothers and siblings (30.8%); and other family members (23.3%).
While 15% decided to report these attacks to the school or the authorities, 29.9% preferred not to say anything and 10.2% dropped out of school after episodes of violence.
“The issue of family violence is still a big problem. Investing in shelters would be an immediate strategy. And investing in combating transphobia in schools. It is something that our country has not faced. I cannot have a trans person studying in a school where she can’t go to the bathroom,” said Maria Eduarda.
According to the survey, 49% of respondents were able to complete high school, but less than half of this contingent (21.1%) went ahead and completed a degree.
The coordinator of the TransVida program stressed that this number is worrying when compared with the response of the companies surveyed, since 96.2% require a high school education to be hired.
“What is very clear is that transphobia at the beginning of life, in the school environment itself, often ends up preventing these people from finishing their studies. So, you have a large number of trans people who did not manage to complete high school “.
Job
The questions aimed at the job market show a little about the difficulties of trans people in their professional experiences. More than half (52.7%) of respondents say they are the only transgender worker at the company, and 25.9% say there are between two and ten trans people among employees.
Almost half of employed transgender people (48%) got their jobs through referrals from friends or acquaintances. Maria Eduarda Aguiar added that many cases are of people who were indicated by non-governmental organizations or of reservations of specific vacancies for transgender people. Although this picture reinforces the importance of these initiatives, it also shows the difficulty these people have in obtaining a job on their own.
“We still have the problem of the trans person not being able to apply for a vacancy without needing a specific vacancy for them”, he says. “We understand that companies need to invest in raising awareness, because it’s no use for them to enter and suffer transphobia”, she explained.
The questionnaire asked respondents to mark all forms of discrimination or violence they suffered or witnessed at work, and 27.6% pointed out their own transphobia; 14.2%, racism; and 9%, homophobia. Disrespecting the social name was reported by 16.4% of these workers, and 6% have already been prevented from using the correct bathroom.
Mental health
So many difficulties and aggressions throughout life harm not only the insertion of the trans population in the labor market, but their mental health, highlighted Maria Eduarda. The interviews show that three out of four participants needed professional psychological support and 60.5% already had suicidal thoughts.
“Issues of violence and mental health cause people to have a worse quality of life and also low self-esteem, without a sense of the future, living today without knowing if there will be a tomorrow”, said Maria Eduarda.
In addition to statistical data about the interviewees, the researchers also gathered testimonials from the participants’ experiences. One of them is Pablo Henrique Sant, a 28-year-old trans man, who said he had already faced situations of psychological violence in the workplace.
“I worked at a hospital care company that required the use of a name badge, I had to make another badge with my social name and I had to hide because, if they caught it, they would say I had to use the name record”, he said, who often found barriers already in the selection. “When I got to the last part of the process – I can roughly remember at least four companies here – they said they didn’t know how to deal with it, that it wasn’t prejudice, but that it was going to be a problem”, he recalled.
Transvestite Wescla Vasconcelos, who has a master’s degree in culture and territoriality at the Fluminense Federal University, stated that she discovered herself trans very early, at age 11, and faced many situations that hurt her during her training.
“They always doubt that we are capable of building a career, of building a future, a profession. So, in public school I faced a lot of discrimination, a lot, both in terms of social name, use of the bathroom, name-calling, physical and verbal violence. I couldn’t get any professional placement that really valued me, all the opportunities for internships and courses, some informal jobs I had in pedagogy, were crossed by a lot of discrimination”, he concluded.
