Experience

FLANDERS | LGBTQIA+ people more often unhappy, bullied and misjudged

Posted by Timothy on

It was summer so it was time for Antwerp Pride and Antwerp Queer Arts Festival (AQAF). From 4 to 27 August, AQAF hosted queer artists being queer, in the alternative, quirky, more rebellious sense of the word. Antwerp Pride, from 9 to 13 August, was more mainstream, openly catering to everyone and thus attracting a general, more mainstream LGBTQIA+ and allied public. This year’s pride theme was ‘Braveolution‘.

Just before the Antwerp Pride weekend the Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper and VTM Nieuws tv news published a survey asking how LGBTQIA+ feel and how they experience their queerness. One in five lesbian, gay, bi, transgender, queer and intersex people say they are unhappy. They are subjected to violence or lewd remarks. 

The survey fits in the popular “Is pride necessary?” narrative. 

Some statistics

  • 60% feel sometimes alone in the world, compared to 40% of the general population.
  • 33% feel having to “tiptoe constantly”, compared to 20% of the general public.
  • 67% has been or is being bullied, twice as much as the general population. 

While almost four in ten Flemish people give themselves a nice 8/10 for happiness, this drops to one in four among the surveyed LGBTQIA+ people. Twenty percent rate themselves for happiness, which is four times more than among straight people.

LGBTQIA+ people indicate much more often not being comfortable with themselves. One in four lost friends when coming out. Almost half of trans or non-binary people are  afraid to show their gender identity in public. Over a fifth have already been physically threatened.

Superficial acceptance

In general terms and in principle, Flemings are accepting of LGBTQIA+ people. But when the topic comes closer to home, when theory becomes practice, being accepting turns out to be much more of a challenge. Only 41% of the general public say to support their child fully if their child turned out to be trans. 30% say they would really struggle. The remaining 30% wouldn’t know how to react.

21% disapproves of adoption by same-sex (potential) parents. 

Too much attention

54% of the Flemings think that too much attention is paid to LGBTQIA+ issues. In last year’s survey by the news outlets, it was ‘only’ 48%

This online research was carried out between 25 July 2023 and 4 August 2023 by research agency iVOX among 1000 random Flemish people, representative of language, gender, age, diploma and voting behaviour, and 400 people from the LGBTQIA+ community.

Laws v reality v stats

For several years now, Belgium scores really high marks in ILGA-Europe‘s Rainbow Map & Index. Our legislation concerning LGBTQIA+ is good and progressing with new societal insights. 

But that doesn’t necessarily translate in daily life and experiences. These well-being statistics try to objectify this. 

Of course, these survey’s are only snapshots and try to convey the complexity of life in some questions and answers. Inevitably, they can’t offer a full picture. But nevertheless this HLN an VTM survey only confirms previous studies on LGBTQIA+ well-being.

Lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, intersex, agender and asexual people still face prejudice, discrimination, misunderstanding, misjudgment and negation. Negation? Yes, ‘complaints’, remarks, issues are not always taken seriously. Even within the queer community. 

Queer Belgium

Antwerp Pride 2024 & Antwerp Queer Arts Festival 2024

Darklands 2023-2024