International LGBT Pride day. June 28th

Title: Transcending Cisgenderism: a Story of Freedom

Speaker: Judith Juanhuix Gibert

The IBMB Diversity Committee is organizing different activities to promote diversity, equality and inclusion at our Institute. On the occasion of June 28, international day for LGBTI rights, we have invited Judith to hear her opinions and personal experiences. Judith is a researcher, PhD in physics and trans activist, currently head of the life sciences section at the Alba Synchrotron. Judith has published a book (Una dona. Ara Llibres, 2021, ISBN 9788418928048, also Una Mujer Dos Bigotes, ISBN 9788412597578 ) and several articles on the rights and health care of trans women. We look forward to seeing you all.

Host: Diversity Committee

Seminar Room: Fèlix Serratosa

Date: Friday, June 30, 2023, 10:00-11:30 AM

The IBMB Diversity, Inclusion and Equity (DEI) Committee organized a talk to celebrate International LGBTI Rights Day (28th June), and invited Judith Juanhuix, a physicist and head of the Life Sciences section at the Alba Synchrotron, who is also a transgender activist. The committee’s aim was to show support for the LGBTI community and promote equality and freedom. Judith, with her scientific expertise and her role as an activist, was the perfect choice to deliver an engaging and informative speech. Judith delivered a masterful talk that emphasized the significance of freedom and the rights of the LGBTI community. She skillfully intertwined scientific information with social reflections to provide a comprehensive understanding of the topic. She illustrated how sexual and gender diversity is inherent in human nature and how discrimination based on these aspects is irrational, non-scientifically justified and unjust. Students, Post Doctoral fellows, Junior and Senior PIs, as well as the administrative department and the directors of the IBMB completely filled the Felix Serratosa room at the PCB.

From the Institute of Molecular Biology of Barcelona (IBMB-CSIC) we would like to acknowledge the LGTBIQA+ community for defending their rights and fighting for equality of these diverse realities. Being homosexual, trans or queer is still legally prohibited in eleven countries around the world, where three of them it can be punished with a death sentence. Facts such as the raising of extreme-right wing parties or illegalizing again the right to abortion (recent event on the United States of America) prove how easy is losing what once cost so much and how necessary is reclaiming the variety of our society, where the hetero-normativity is only one part of those many that forms our social environment. Specially, the discrimination trans people suffer regarding job offers, heading them towards horrible experiences that can affect for their whole life. Hereby, we remind everyone our institution is a safe place where anyone can freely express themselves and share their emotions and opinions.

“How many years has it taken people
to realize that we are all brothers and sisters
and human beings in the human race?”.

Marsha P. Johnson, black trans-woman, and AIDS activist. Even though the cause of her death is still “unclear”, her body was found in the Hudson River in 1992.