Interpersonal violence against homosexual, bisexual and transgender people

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the sociodemographic profile of homosexual, bisexual, transvestite and transgender people victims of interpersonal violence in São Paulo - SP, the context of the occurrences, the aggressor characteristics of and the referrals made to the victims. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study developed through the analysis of notifications of suspected or confirmed cases of interpersonal violence, from 2016 to 2020, in the city of São Paulo, contained in the Notifiable Diseases Information System. Data collection was carried out between February and March 2021. For statistical analysis, Fischer’s exact test and Holm-Bonferroni method were used. Results: A total of 4,828 notifications of violence against homosexual, bisexual, transvestite and transgender people were obtained. The most affected age group was between 20 and 34 years old (48.2%), with brown or black skin color (51.5%) and with complete high school (24.7%). The aggressors were men (64.5%) aged between 25 and 59 years (56.3%). Homosexual men were more associated with physical violence, while homosexual and bisexual women suffered greater psychological violence (p<0.001). Transvestites and transgender women with less education were more victimized. There was an association between physical violence and sexism (p<0.003) and psychological violence with homophobia or transphobia (p=0.016). Referrals to the health care network and sexually transmitted infections prophylaxis predominated. Conclusion: Young adults, brown or black, with elementary or high school education were the main victims. The assaults took place at home or on a public road, provoked by men older than the victims, motivated by sexism, homophobia/transphobia or generational conflicts. There was an association with alcohol consumption by the aggressor.