Chronicles of ordinary homophobia. A subtle violence that kills

Text by Massimo Battaglio* taken from the ebook Chronicles of ordinary homophobia de Jonathan's tent, April 2026, pp.3-6

To the God of consolation, I would then like to talk about the most subtle violence, the psychological one or that which leverages primary needs without piercing the body. I would like to tell him about those 286 people who were removed from their parents' homes or who had to leave before the worst happened, or about the 90 who were fired or persuaded to quit their jobs, or about those who were refused a house to rent or a room in a hotel or a table in a restaurant, or who suffered damage to their homes, their cars or their businesses.

But I should also mention those who have been the subject of stalking or defamation by all means, not least cyber, and the list would extend to 949 confirmed victims and who knows how many were hidden. And then it is enough for me to know that, for Him, the dignity of each of his children is worth as much as his body and that the wrongs done to it are as indelible as the scars.

«Whoever calls his brother "stupid" will be subjected to the Sanhedrin» (Mt 5,22)

Discrimination and insult are no less serious than bodily wounds as they leave an indelible mark on the heart and mind. They induce victims and their peers to live in fear that things will repeat themselves and perhaps get worse, to develop feelings of inadequacy and inferiority that will accompany them for the rest of their days. And it will not be enough to know that "the last will be first" (Mt 20:16). This truth will not be enough to make fear disappear, which is irrational and will oppress all the same.

Yet it seems that some of us, who call ourselves believers, have forgotten this, worried about reducing the Gospel to a matter of tradition and Good Friday velvets, and fierce in demanding that others respect a single commandment, the sixth, "do not commit impure acts", where purity, obviously, is up to them to decide and must coincide with their opinion.

This is not about opinions but about twisted minds. it's About being so unhappy that you want to prevent others from being happy, so weak that you have to build imaginary Enemies (gender, this monster!) to have someone to despise in order to Feel powerful. contempt is little less serious than beatings and cannot be repaired with a fine but only through justice, solidarity and, for us christians, the ability to sympathize. «Fac Me tecum plángere» sings jacopone Da todi In the Stabat Mater addressing the Dolorosa Mother.

I would then like to say to the God of the afflicted that I find absurd the difference that, even in homophobia, is found between people of the male and female gender or of cisgender and transgender identities. "Biological" women who report episodes of homophobia are only 16% of the total while "biological" males are 71%. Conversely, trans women are 11% and trans men are 2%. The numbers don't add up because our community is made up of more than half of females and only 1% of people following a gender affirmation journey.

Could it be that women are more accustomed to putting up with rather than reporting the injustices they suffer? Yes: homophobia is sexist. The homophobe sees women as an object of desire and little more. The homophobe is not even able to recognize a lesbian woman: for him she remains a potential prey, a servant, an inferior being. The proof?

35% Of female victims of homophobic violence were affected individually; the remaining 65% in couple contexts. The homophobe is so primitive That he doesn't consider that a woman might not even be interested in him. he only understands It when he has proof. and then he Leads. and he Ends up killing if it doesn't suit him, as happened to Elisa from Carpineto Piacentino.

«ECCE ANCILLA DOMINI» (Lk 1,38)

Mary says: «I am the servant of the Lord», not of the first one who passes by. But the primitive does not speak Latin. And he can't stand the fact that a male like him wants to degrade himself to the role of a female (he doesn't care if he's gay, bisexual, queer or that stuff for people who have studied. For him, she's a "failed female"). Even more so if he even has surgery (he has never heard of gender dysphoria). For this reason, the victims of transphobia are proportionally so many compared to their number. Result: 49% of homotransphobic murders focus on 1% of the LGBTQ+ population, that is, trans women.

Finally, I would ask the God of armies not to get angry if I go on too long in giving to Caesar what is Caesar's, that is, in talking about politics, because this has something to do with it too. In recent years, peaks of homophobic violence have occurred in some particular moments: the months of June and July of 2018 and 2019. These are the Pride months which evidently overheat homophobic minds, especially since the establishment of a certain Government.

There are people in Italy who organize themselves into real political formations to hunt for fags, and Pride days are great for letting off steam. In 2024 in Chieti, Forza Nuova literally besieged the procession. And on that occasion there were nine victims without counting the dozens who were spat on. In the same days, in Turin, another far-right group physically attacked the segment of the Neurodivergent Collective. In this case there was only one victim, a neurodivergent person, to be precise.

But you don't need a party or an association to use homophobia as a political weapon. More than 30 times I have recorded homophobic acts against people (generally male) running for elections (all centre-left, it goes without saying), acts ranging from the defacement of posters with defamatory writings, to death threats culminating, in one case, with incitement to suicide. It is a climate that is somewhat reminiscent of the political violence of the 1970s which revitalized the ranks of terrorism.

On the other hand, there has always been a particular intensity of the homophobic phenomenon when it was discussed in Parliament: in the period surrounding the institution of civil unions and during the discussion of the Zan law. The homophobe, who, as we said, is primitive, is someone who wants to participate in the debate but, not knowing how to use words, uses his hands. All political forces should take this into account.

Così come dovrebbero tenerne conto quegli uomini di Chiesa che puntualmente sentono l’irrefrenabile bisogno di rallentare il dibattito civile lanciando comunicati roboanti in cui si ram- menta il Catechismo (selezionandone giusto tre articoli su quasi tremila) e il diritto ecclesiastico, o quei gruppetti fanatici che tappezzano le città di manifesti che tendono a sacralizzare l’omofobia o che organizzano “veglie di riparazione” contro i Pride. La loro azione non è solo ridicola ma pericolosa. Genera odio. E l’odio non è cristiano. Non è di Dio.

Il naso rotto di un ragazzo è infinitamente più grave di tutte le “ideologie del gender”. Il corpo di Vincenzo fatto a pezzi spar- si in giro per Napoli, non è un’ideologia. È ciò che resta di un ragazzo vittima di omofobia.

Mi tocca registrare spesso – negli ultimi anni è capitato più di 30 volte – episodi avvenuti proprio in chiesa, negli oratori, nelle scuole e negli ospedali cattolici, cioè negli ambienti in cui la dignità della persona viene solitamente ritenuta più sacra. Qui, quando non si arriva a offendere una persona in particolare – espellendola dai servizi pastorali o dal posto di lavoro – ci si lascia spesso andare a considerazioni generali e a prediche che non si possono conteggiare, perché non fanno vittime dirette ma sono capolavori di ignoranza e veri e propri incitamenti all’odio.

The God of goodness instills a minimum of delicacy in the shepherds he sends us and helps them to understand that every soul entrusted to them is more important than any teaching, any conviction, any ideology made up as doctrine.

In the count of victims, I did not include the infinite episodes of simple offenses or banal insults which, compared to the serious crimes I mentioned, would have been out of tune. But this evening, in my dialogue with the Lord, I do not want to forget them. Because even minimization offends: by denying reality or pretending it is another, saying that "we have many gay friends" or that "they already have civil unions; what more do they want?".

This is also homophobia. It is the first step of a staircase that descends without landings to the brush that wrapped Lucero's body, to the floor stained with Alex's blood. From "let's pretend they don't exist" to "they shouldn't exist" (phrase pronounced by a priest in a conference in front of hundreds of schoolchildren in Vercelli and then reiterated on social media) or to "they need to be fought, may the Lord send them arrows" (another priest near Turin), the step is short and continuous. And from there to get busy so that they no longer exist, there is no solution of continuity. The unfortunate person who puts his hand there can be found, even without having to look for him.

The second step is that of false listening, of proclamations of welcome made without changing the entry rules, of phrases like "they feel excluded" when, in reality, those who pronounce them are the first to exclude us. That self-absolving "they feel", which shifts things from the level of objectivity to that of individual impression, in the long run, creates stress. And in fact, especially in recent years, corporal violence is growing, even if it emerges only when it is impossible to keep it hidden, while the number of reports of otherwise violent or discriminatory acts remains constant because one feels so disillusioned that one does not want to expose oneself.

«WE HANG OUR HIRE ON THE WILLOW BRANCHES OF OUR OWN LAND» (Ps 137).

The story of Franco and her husband, who for months have suffered a stalking campaign with serious damage to their home and have already filed 20 complaints, is not an opinion. It's much better to give space to Trump's proclamations when he kicks trans women out of the military. So we will understand that, to be strong, you have to be homophobic and that by being homophobic you become strong and command.

Commanding is certainly not an evangelical virtue. Indeed, the Lord

«HE HAS DISPERSED THE PROUD IN THE THOUGHTS OF THEIR HEART, HE HAS DROPPED THE MIGHTY FROM THE THRONES AND HAS EXALTED THE HUMBLE» (Lk 1,51-52).

But what does it matter to them? For them, the good Christian is only the one who does not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; the one who relaxes at the death of Pope Francis and deludes himself that Pope Leo is returning to his old healthy principles because he wears the red cape. What depth of faith!

May The god of hope convert Them. we ask this for their good and for ours.