20 years of Gay Help Line 800 713 713 in Italy: nearly 400,000 contacts and over 3,000 volunteers
From the case of Andrea, the boy with pink pants, to the new alarms about family, school, and the internet: post-Covid. Among the testimonials are Maionchi, Ayane, Cucinotta, and US Ambassador Thorne.
In July 2005 he was brutally killed Paul Seganti because he is gay, and it is precisely to him that the Contact Center was dedicated Gay Help Line 800 713 713, activated for the first time in Italy on March 16, 2006 thanks to the support of the Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni and the councilor Mariella Gramaglia. The service, aimed immediately at the entire community LGBTQAI+ in Italy, in 20 years he received almost 400 thousand contacts and format over 3,000 volunteers with 38 courses training for operators and hundreds of refresher courses, creating a huge team of people willries and professionals who in these years have tried to never leave anyone who asks for help alone.
From the analysis of the data of 20 years the service shows that the phenomena discriminatory in the family, at school and in society, constantly decreasing from 2006 to 2019, they started to increase again after the pandemic, almost returning to the levels of the early years and in some cases surpassing them. This data confirms the continued need for a listening and protection platform like the Gay Help Line, especially for the younger generations.
In 2009 Gay Help Line was the first service to be recognized as a civil party in the trial for the violent attack that took place in the EUR against a gay couple, a trial in which for the first time the homophobic motive as an aggravating factor, thanks also to the work of the lawyer Daniele Stoppello, one of the founders of the service, who died prematurely.
In 2011 the service Gay Help Line has been included in the White Paper of the Ministry of Equal Opportunities and, over the years, he has also collaborated with the Ministry of Education and the Lazio Region. Support is essential of the Italian Buddhist Institute Soka Gakkai through the 8×1000 funds, of the Municipality of Rome and of the Waldensian Church and which have allowed the continuity of activities to this day.
Among the cases we have dealt with we cannot forget that of Andrea Spezzacatena in 2012, which became known to the news as “the boy with pink pants”. It was thanks to listening to his schoolmates who called Gay Help Line to tell them about the homophobia Andrea was suffering that the Facebook page was brought to the attention of his mother, who was thus able to understand how much her son was suffering, and to’OSCAD, the Ministry of the Interior's anti-discrimination observatory. That story was recently brought to the screen in the film of the same name.
The years 2012 and 2013 have seen a sharp increase in cases of bullying and suicide among LGBTQIA+ youth, to which the 2014 commercial starring the actor was dedicated Edward Valdarnini. Among the testimonial who have supported Gay Help Line in recent years, we remember, among others, Malika Ayane e Mara Maionchi (2011), Maria Grazia Cucinotta (2009), the United States Ambassador David Thorne (2010), Stefano Campagna of TG1 (2008), the actor Lorenzo Richelmy (2015) and Alessandro Baracchini by Rainews (2019).
Listening to the needs of thousands of users who called us, we have activated new services such as Speakly chat, designed to allow new generations to report abuse without the risk of being overheard at home. For example, we recall a young boy's phone call interrupted by his mother's screams, having overheard the conversation: from there, the idea of creating a chat was born, created in 2016 thanks to the support of the Lazio Region and of the Ministry of Labor, which today receives on average approximately 6 thousand contacts per year.
Always to respond to the concrete needs of people, in 2012, thanks to the Province of Rome and then to the Red Cross, the path that led to the 2016 at the opening of LGBT REFUGE, the Italy's first family home for victims of homophobia, designed for those many young people who have been kicked out of their homes. Based on this model, thanks to the work with UNAR – National Office Against Racial Discrimination and to the Fund for LGBTQAI+ victims, proposed to Parliament starting from the experience of Gay Help Line and approved in’August 2020, in recent years numerous CADs (anti-discrimination centers) have been started throughout the country.
For the 20 years of the service we have started a national campaign which starts from logo restyling and from the new claim “There's always a voice with you”, which reminds us that we have been there and will always be there to support those who need support. Like every year, in the month of May we will publish the full report with data from 20 years of service, which will examine in depth the trend of reported and monitored cases of homotransphobia.
We have also created a video to retrace our interventions in the media and in society in recent years, in which testimonies and reports broadcast on many news and television programmes are collected, for example those conducted by Maurizio Costanzo, Stefano De Martino, Federica Panicucci e Bianca Berlinguer.
All this was possible thanks to the partner who still support us today, but above all thanks to the daily work of thousands of volunteers and professionals who over the past twenty years have made Gay Help Line an essential tool against homophobia and a point of reference for those seeking a hearing, protection, and rights.
Fabrizio Marrazzo Founder Gay Help Line 800 713 713
Alessandra Rossi Coordinator Gay Help Line 800 713 713
