Reasons and Hate. Phobic Logics in and towards LGBTIAQ+ Collectives

Hate and fear run through our bodies, minds, actions and discourses in different ways and from different angles as a symptom and consequence of violence which is inherited and reactivated in the present. Today, we are witness to spiralling phobia which tends to flood social space, driving out difference and stopping other types of affects from germinating.

This round-table discussion features the participation of Ballet Djédje, Demetrio Gómez, Elena Prous, Tatiana Romero Reina and Iki Yos Piña, the voices of different agents hit hard by these logics of hate and fear and who refuse to assume the role of victim that pushes them aside and threatens to absorb the energy and capacity to evolve and build other ways of relating.     

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Ballet Djédjé is a queer writer and PhD candidate in Anthropology at the Autonomous University of Madrid. His research is centred on the experiences of African homosexual people on the African continent and in Europe, racism in the gay community in Europe and the deconstruction of discourses on homosexuality in Africa. He is the author of How to Love Yourself as a Gay Man in Africa? (2023), a self-help book published independently which offers advice on loving oneself and self-acceptance, coming out, homosexuality, faith and sexual health.  

Demetrio Gómez is an activist who works for human rights and intersectionality and is recognised internationally among the Romany people. His work is also approached, transversally, from an inclusive, intersectional, decolonial and queer perspective. He has worked as an expert and trainer in the Council of Europe, the European Commission and different non-governmental organisations and international institutions centred on anti-racist activism and the fight against xenophobia. He is the founder of the Federation of Gypsy Youth Associations in Spain (Jachivela) and the Forum of European Roma Young People (FERYP), and has been on the Board of Trustees of the International Foundation of Human Rights and the European LGBTIAQ+ Romany Platform. He is the president of VERVERIPEN, Rroms for Diversity.

Elena Prous is an activist and columnist. Trained in nursing (2006), she has been part of the Independent Life Movement (MVI) since 2010. Through the body and performance, she works on functional diversity, for instance in Aguanta tú que puedes (You Can Withstand), a piece that was part of the 8th Contemporary Art Biennial – ONCE Foundation (2022). She is a contributor to publications such as La Madeja, Pikara Magazine, Diario.es and El Salto, and has taught training courses and consultancy on the realities facing people viewed as having disabilities in different institutions like Tabakalera – International Centre of Contemporary Culture in Donostia-San Sebastián, the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the Complutense University of Madrid. She currently writes the blog Laincontenida.com. 

Tatiana Romero Reina holds a degree in History from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and an MA in Twentieth-Century History in Europe from Humboldt University in Berlin. She specialises in the history of women, gender relations and sex-gender dissidence and studies aspects related to contemporary history with an intersectional perspective. In recent years, her work has revolved around the migration experience, and she has spent over fifteen years as an anti-racist and transfeminist activist via workshops and training programmes. She is the co-founder of Grupo Kollontai, and works with Pikara Magazine, Feminopraxis and El Salto. She recently coordinated the volume (h)amor8 gordo, published by Continta Me Tienes in 2023. 

Iki Yos Piña Narváez are an untamed fugitive, writer, performer and draughtsperson from the Caribbean. They investigate anti-colonial archives and sexual dissidence, Black memories of the Caribbean and spirituality and are part of the Ayllu collective, Cooperativa Periferia Cimarrona and the experimental group of radical Black thought In the Wake, from the Conciencia Afro space. They have contributed to publications such as Devuélvannos el oro. Cosmovisiones perversas y acciones anticoloniales (Colectivo Ayllu, 2018), No existe sexo sin racialización (Colectivo Ayllu, 2017), (h)amor6 trans (Continta Me Tienes, 2021), and Futuro Ancestral (Pensare Cartonera, 2022), among others. Their creations are also part of the Museo Reina Sofía Collection and they have participated in the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Frestas – Art Triennial in Brazil (2021) and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India (2022). 

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