Stigma is not a characteristic of a person. It is a social process that can influence how you are viewed, treated, and the opportunities you access.
A generalized belief that attributes characteristics to someone because they belong, or appear to belong, to a group. Replace what we know about the person with a label.
Fictional example: assume that a person who lives on the street does not want to work, without knowing their history or circumstances.
A prior assessment or attitude based on generalizations. It can be expressed as distrust, rejection or contempt before meeting the person.
Fictional example: distrusting a candidate's ability because of her accent, before listening to her professional experience.
A social process that labels and devalues people based on a real or attributed characteristic. In a context of power inequality, it can encourage rejection and exclusion.
Fictional example: Rumors spread in a neighborhood that present sex workers as less respectable neighbors.
A treatment, practice, or rule that unjustifiably disadvantages someone because of a real or attributed characteristic. It can exist even if there is no conscious intention to discriminate. This is an informative explanation, not the legal assessment of a case.
Fictitious example: rejecting a candidacy due to the person's origin, even if they meet the requirements of the position.
We can observe where it is produced, how it is experienced and who it reaches. These dimensions can coexist: they are not a unique or exclusive classification.
It is reflected in the practices of an organization: how it receives, registers, cares for or makes decisions about people.
Fictional example: A service insists on publicly calling a trans person by a name that she has asked not to be used in the deal.
What can help. Review how you call people and registration systems. A change in procedure helps prevent the situation from happening again.
It is based on social norms, policies and ways of distributing resources that keep certain groups at a disadvantage.
Fictional example: a municipal policy eliminates rest places to expel homeless people, presented as a problem for the city's image.
What can help. Question the prejudice that supports the measure and participate in the review of that policy with the affected people. The responses must address their needs and their participation in community life.
They are situations of rejection, humiliation or unequal treatment that a person has experienced.
Fictional example: a bisexual person is ridiculed at work when he talks about his partner.
What can help. Acknowledge harm and offer support options. There is no need to minimize what happened or pressure the person to complain.
It is expecting rejection or unfair treatment. It can arise from your own experiences, from what happens to other people or from the context.
Fictional example: someone delays a consultation because they fear receiving reproaches if they explain that they do sex work.
What can help. Explains what the care will be like and how the information is protected. Listen to what worries the person and offer to prepare the consultation with them.
It occurs when a person adopts social messages that devalue them. It is not a fault or a personal failure.
Fictional example: after hearing blaming messages, someone begins to think that they deserve less affection for living with HIV.
What can help. Remember that your dignity does not depend on a diagnosis. Offer support chosen by the person and also question messages and practices that harm them.
Rejection reaches someone because of their relationship with a stigmatized person or group: family, friends or those who provide support.
Fictional example: a group stops having a partner because it collaborates with an association of trans people.
What can help. Point out unfair treatment without revealing other people's data. Supporting someone does not justify becoming an object of rejection.
Racism, transphobia, poverty or other forms of discrimination can intertwine and create specific barriers. They are not identical experiences nor a simple sum of labels.
Fictional example: a migrant trans woman encounters obstacles to renting housing due to her gender identity, her origin and her income.
What can help. Ask what barriers are acting in that situation. Coordinate the necessary supports without reducing the entire experience to a single reason.
These informative explanations are supported by Law 15/2022 of Spain. The legal assessment of a situation requires considering its context.
Treating a person worse than another in a comparable situation for a reason protected by law, such as their origin, sexual orientation or health status.
Fictional example: a company rejects a candidate for having HIV, although she meets the conditions for the position.
A rule that appears neutral may be particularly harmful to certain people for a protected reason. To assess it, its purpose, necessity and proportionality must be examined.
Fictitious example: requiring a level of Spanish much higher than that necessary for the tasks for a job can put people from other origins at a disadvantage.
Discriminatory treatment occurs due to a relationship with another person who has a characteristic protected by law. No need to share that feature.
Fictional example: a landlord refuses to rent to a person when he knows that his partner is of gypsy origin.
The next step may be to seek support, accompany someone, or review a practice in your organization.
Find out what I can doDocument consultation: September 21, 2026. The selection of sources does not amount to a professional review of this page. How we process information.
Where is it producedSocial and interpersonal
It appears in shared ideas and in the treatment between people: rumors, ridicule, rejection or devaluation in everyday relationships.
Fictional example: colleagues stop inviting someone to eat after finding out that they have hepatitis B.
What can help. Question the exclusion, consult reliable information and ask the person what support they want. Protect your privacy.