Sexual assault of LGBTQ persons

There are varying definitions as to what sexual assault is defined as. According to the United States Department of Justice:The term "sexual assault" means any nonconsensual sexual act proscribed by Federal, tribal, or State law, including when the victim lacks capacity to consent.Definitions and laws of sexual assault vary from state to state. The website FindLaw allows users to click on their corresponding to state to read about how their state defines what sexual assault is, as well as what laws and limitations exist. Sexual assault of LGBTQ individuals refers to the act of sexual violence against persons who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender amongst other sexualities and sexual minorities. == Social constructive theories ==

Sexual violence against LGBTQ people, also known as Sexual and Gender Minorities (SGM), occurs within the context of a misogynistic, homophobic and transphobic world. Prejudice and discrimination experienced by SGM populations contribute to their experience of minority stress. Minority stress posits that prejudice and discrimination against SGM populations cause and maintain health disparities. SGM victims are less likely than heterosexual victims to find formal refuge from sexual violence and receive appropriate care due to historical biases in legislation and domestic violence shelters tailoring their services towards cisgender and heterosexual female victims. Despite the influence of group coalitions led by women of color, disabled women, and transgender survivors in activism against sexual assault, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994 centered a monolithic approach to supporting survivors, primarily who were white heterosexual cisgender women, and took a carceral approach to funding DV shelters (i.e., required survivors to report abusers to law enforcement in order to receive shelter). The nature of the sexual assault is shaped by the way intersecting identities interact with their social context, often shaping the nature of the sexual assault, the outcomes, and access to services post-assault. For example, African American women experience high rates of sexual assault, often relating to the historic stigmatization and fetishization of African American women sexuality, however, research shows they are less likely to disclose survivorship and seek out support due to stigma. == Statistics ==

Intersectionality within U.S. statistics Discussions on sexual assault have often ignored intersectionality and primarily focused on heterosexual dynamics, much less has been explored on how sexual assault is experienced among sexual and gender minorities (SGM) and the intersections of marginalized identities (i.e., race, gender, incarcerated, SES, etc.). Incarcerated SGM For example, institutionalized racism within the criminal legal system and accounts of police brutality make it less likely for SGM victims to involve the criminal legal system in the aftermath of sexual assault. Reluctance to involve the legal system is particularly true for victims of color and sex workers. Within prisons, incarcerated gay (38%) and bisexual (33.7%) men are more likely than heterosexual men (3.5%) to be sexually violated by other inmates. Gay (11.8%) and bisexual men (17.5%) were sexually assaulted by prison staff compared to heterosexual men (5.2%). A different pattern is observed among incarcerated women. Incarcerated bisexual women (18.1%) are at a higher risk for sexual violation by other inmates than lesbian (12.1%) and heterosexual (13.1%) women. Compared to incarcerated heterosexual women, both lesbian and bisexual women are at higher risk for sexual violence victimization by prison staff. Additionally, sexual minorities are more likely to be sexually assaulted while being incapacitated from substance use than heterosexuals. SGM child sexual assault Research also suggests that SGM youth are often targeted for childhood sexual assault. == Obstacles preventing LGBTQ people from reporting assault ==

Despite facing a higher rates of sexual assault than heterosexual and cisgender people, members of the LGBTQ community do not report sexual assault as much. Many are afraid of mistreatment due to their sexual or gender orientation, with 85% of victim advocates stating that LGBTQ victims they have worked with have been denied services due to their identities. Many also fear being outed in the process of reporting assault. Stigma and stereotypes Aside from systemic influence, minority stress also manifests in the form of stigma, stereotypes, and discrimination that shape the nature of sexual violence. The underlying issues of sexual assault against LGBTQ persons includes homophobia and transphobia among other forms of prejudice against sexual minorities. One barrier to help-seeking research has found for LGBTQ victims of sexual assault has been the minimization of their experience. Minimization refers to downplaying of the implications and consequences of sexual assault by either the victim or individuals whom they tell about the assault. A risk factor for sexual violence and IPV in same-sex relationships include homophobic stigma and internalized homophobic stigma. Additionally, stigmas held within hypermasculine cultures associate femininity with weakness and submission often motivate sexual violence towards transgender women and cisgender women. with one in two transgender people experiencing some form of sexual abuse or assault in their lives (about 47% of transgender people) than their cisgender counterparts. This number only increases for gender minorities of colour, that do sex work, are homeless, and have disabilities. About 57% of these victims, however, have reported feeling uncomfortable reporting their assaults to the authorities, and 58% reported mistreatment by law enforcement, including but not limited to misgendering and verbal, physical, and further sexual assault. According to scholars Adam M. Messinger, Xavier L. Guadalupe-Diaz, sexual assault and intimate partner violence (IPV) against transgender people is distinct because of two societal norms: cisnormativity and transphobia. They expand upon this in their book, Transgender Intimate Partner Violence, where cisnormativity is defined as "the expectation that all people are cisgender, along with the privileging of cisgender experience and the pathologizing of transgender experience," and transphobia as "a strong dislike of or fear of transgender people." They argue that cisnormativity and transphobia put transgender people in a more vulnerable position that leads to more assault and IPV. Using a case study of a transgender boy referred to as Joe, Messinger and Guadalupe-Diaz state that Joe was too afraid to go to the police for assault and IPV for fear of being invalidated as a male victim, being discriminated against for being transgender, and for fear that the police would arrest him instead of his abuser, something that happens to transgender people more frequently than their cisgender counterparts due to a stereotype that transgender people are more violent or sexual. == Survivorship self-disclosure ==

Self-disclosure on sexual violence varies across SGM. In regard to self-disclosure type (i.e., lifetime, child sexual assault, hate crime-related sexual assault), lesbian and bisexual women are more likely to report lifetime experiences of sexual violence and intimate partner sexual violence compared to gay and bisexual men. Gay and bisexual men are more likely than lesbian and bisexual women to disclose sexual violence victimization as a hate crime. 59% of gay and bisexual men disclose experiencing childhood sexual abuse. Another facet of the disclosure includes the source type or the source to which the survivor divulges their sexual assault. SGM survivors more frequently disclose their SA experience to informal sources (i.e., family, friends, peers, partners, etc.) than formal sources (i.e., police, doctors, therapists, etc.); this is often related to individual and institutionalized stigma & discrimination. Social responses to disclosure can potentially buffer or exacerbate (i.e., retraumatization) negative outcomes following sexual assault. Among SGM survivors, negative social response to self-disclosure of sexual assault relates to increased risk for PTSD and higher levels of distress. SGM survivors disclosing to formal sources are more likely to receive negative social responses than when disclosing to informal sources. Research shows that SGM survivors are met with mixed social responses to their sexual assault disclosure. Notably, bisexual women more commonly experience negative social reactions to their SA disclosure when compared to non-SGM women, and a similar parallel exists among transgender survivors when compared to cisgender. ==See also==