This French campaigner is working to restore the LGBT+ community's faith in the police
The 56-year-old, Desportes-Guilloux, has made it his goal to address this issue by visiting police stations and teaching officers how to handle crime complaints from LGBT+ individuals.
It's still clear in the memory of Christophe Desportes-Guilloux about the incident, decades ago when French police would raid nightclubs and arrest people like him – for being gay.
Although those days might have passed, now they have left a legacy: a lack of confidence between police and France's LGBT+ community, which proves that some individuals are now hesitant to go to the police when they are victims of attacks simply based on their sexual identity.
The 56-year-old, Desportes-Guilloux, has made it his goal to address this issue by visiting police stations and teaching officers how to handle crime complaints from LGBT+ individuals.
"There are still many LGBT individuals who dread individuals in uniform," he remarked outside the police headquarters in Orleans, central France, where he conducted a training session for officers.
"The goal is to enhance ties between police personnel and civilians," says Desportes-Guilloux, who represents an LGBT+ association called GAGL 45.
As per data from the French interior ministry, police documented 1,590 victims of homophobic or transphobic attacks in 2020.
However, this is only half of the picture. According to ministry research, just 20% of persons who were victims of anti-LGBT threats or violence submitted a police report between 2012 and 2018.
"We questioned why, and we got two different sorts of responses," Desportes-Guilloux explained. "People told us, 'It's because police officers don't treat us well,' and others, 'Because I don't dare to go make a complaint.'"
"So we plan to establish a link between individuals who may need to submit a complaint and the police officers who receive the complaints."
His organisation has conducted around ten police training sessions to date. Desportes-Guilloux spoke in front of an audience of up to 30 cops from the department that receives citizen reports of crime at the Orleans police headquarters.
He walked the police through the many sorts of sexual orientation and sexual identities they could face in society, as well as the terminology used to define them. And he informed them about the kind of crimes that LGBT+ persons are particularly exposed to.
Maryline Francois, the department's commanding commander, was among those listening.
"The training helps us to recognise the victim, to recognise who we are talking to, in order to adjust our words to what this individual feels. A lot depends on the victims' sensibility and perception, which we must adjust to," she said.
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