The Role of Italian LGBTQ+ Centers Against Discrimination (CAD) in the Public Sphere. A Case Study

In Italy, violence against LGBTQ+ people is constantly increasing, but de-spite this, policies implemented to address these issues have, so far, been fragmented and weak. After a harsh political clash, 37 projects were funded across the country in 2022 to create CADs and two shelters for vic-tims of violence. This paper focuses on the political role of these activities: we present the first results of a research conducted with a qualitative ap-proach (in-depth interviews, interviews with key informants) in a specific case study, a CAD in Reggio Calabria (Southern Italy), a particularly fragile area of the country from a political and economic point of view. Since the rates of violence alone do not explain the violent experiences suffered by LGBTQ+ people, the objective of this research is to analyze the actions and working methods of this organization to verify its social and political role and identify how these activities contribute to the construction of a public sphere capable of unveiling asymmetric power relations and, finally, high-light appropriate policy indications to reduce gender inequalities.