Sexual violence and the LGBTQ+ community

Members of LGBTQ communities in the U.S. face the same or higher rates of sexual violence than the general population (non LGTBQ+ people). This sexual violence is committed by non-LGBTQ individuals (in form of a hate crime) and also by other LGBTQ individuals. A survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that individuals who self-identify as lesbian, gay, and bisexual have an equal or higher prevalence of experiencing IPV (intimate partner violation), SV (sexual violence), and stalking as compared to self-identified heterosexuals. The difference between the results of heterosexual people and  people from the LGBTQ+ community is due to their different social standards. As a community, LGBTQ people face higher rates of poverty, stigma, and marginalization, which put them at greater risk for sexual violence.

Results of the survey:

• 44 % of lesbians and 61 % of bisexual women experience rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner, compared to 35 % of straight women
• 26 % of gay men and 37 % of bisexual men experience rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner, compared to 29 % of straight men
• 46 % of bisexual women have been raped, compared to 17 % of straight women and 13 % of lesbians
• 22 %  of bisexual women have been raped by an intimate partner, compared to 9 % of straight women
• 40 % of gay men and 47 %  of bisexual men have experienced sexual violence other than rape, compared to 21 % of straight men

Transgender people and bisexual women face the most alarming rates of sexual violence from all the other people that conform the whole LGBTQ+ community. Among both of these populations, sexual violence begins early, often during childhood.

• Nearly half (48 percent) of bisexual women who are rape survivors experienced their first rape between ages 11 and 17.

• The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey found that 47% of transgender people are sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetime.

Effects of sexual violence

The effects that a person from the LGBTQ+ community caused by sexual violence might differ from other population. They might face different or additional challenges in accessing legal, medical, law enforcement.

Some of the effects that a victim might suffer are:

1. Wanting/Desire to be believed: Not feeling believed or worrying that you won’t be believed.
2. Thinking it's your fault, shame or guilt. You may be going over the assault in your mind many times to try to figure out if you did something wrong. It was not your fault
3. Feeling of loneliness
4. Facing disbelief that sexual violence affects LGBTQ people. Some people might (mistankely) believe that sexual violence does not affect LGBTQ+ members.
5. Hard to identify yourself as a survivor.
6. Difficult to tell someone if you're out. If you have not yet come out to friends or family about your gender identity or sexual orientation, you may feel less able to disclose sexual assault to them.
7. You may not find support in some faith communities.

Barriers the LGBTQ+ members have to face

A big problem that people from the LGTBQ+ community have is that they have more barriers to report sexual violence than non-LGBTQ+ people. Many sexual violence survivors face lots of barriers when it comes to reporting, like the fear of being judged or not believed, but members of the LGBTQ+ community normally face additional barriers. One of the biggest barriers they have to face is that even they ask for help some service providers might consider it unimportant that the motive of the sexual violence act could be due to a hate crime (related to their sexual orientation or gender identity). This is a reason why LGBTQ* members should have the access to support that fulfills their needs and affirms their identity.

Another big issue is that many of them would be scared to report because they fear the rejection of their community or they fear they may be labeled as the perpetrators. This is due to the big stigma that the LGBTQ+ community has when it comes to sexual violence. Another problem is that many members of the community are scared to report because their sexual orientation and/or gender identity would be revealed and people would judge them and treat them differently. Last but not least, access to help and support is not equal to everyone. Transgender people face more barriers than anyone else in the community because many times service providers, like shelter staff for sexual violence victims, do not recognize and affirm their sexual identity.

The educational system on LGBTQ+ and sexual abuse matters

Every country is different, every education system unique and even every school and teacher one of a kind. The situation around the LGBTQ+ community and sexual abuse at schools around the globe is generally bad. The majority of schools are not safe spaces for queer youth. Just the fact that in 71 countries being LGBTQ+ is a crime, and in 11 a life threat is impossible to feel safe and welcome at school, or even to talk about it. On top of that, sexual abuse and the queer community is still taboo in a lot of societies, making it impossible to place it anywhere around kids and education.

United States

The United States of America is one of the most socially powerful countries in the world, with laws against rape, harassment, and hate crimes. The problem is that educational laws among others are made by the state, each state government has its own. Most of them have some sort of law against bullying and sexual abuse, but some are not specific creating confusion and chaos when the hate crime is specifically made for some trait (race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender…). The same thing happens with sexual abuse, a lot of times the school administration doesn’t know how to handle it and it ends up in nothing, without even reporting it to the police.  But the problem is actually in the curriculum, these matters are not treated in any state school material, making it taboo and even normalizing these attitudes.

LGTBIQ+

According to a GLSEN study made in 2018, LGBTQ+ people are two to three times more likely to get bullied, and when it happens, their case is more likely to be ignored or mishandled by the school staff. In fact, over 2,500 teachers are not comfortable intervening with sexual orientation and gender identity bullying or even talking about sexuality in class. Furthermore, for those who want to help, there’s a huge lack of training and administrative help to create educated teachers on the matter and provide experts. The creation of safe spaces across the country is still a primary need and goal for a lot of families, teachers, and LGBTQ+ advocates.

Sexual abuse

Following a study made by the > NSVRC, in the States, one in five women has experienced rape or an attempt. One in three experienced it between the ages of 11 and 17. One in four undergraduate women goes through some sort of sexual assault during their college time. Over 700,000 women are raped every year. Only 25% of cases are reported to the police.

The Department of Education of the USA

This department collects every year civil rights data concerning sexual abuse matters at k-12 (kindergarten to 12th grade) schools. In 1972 the education department created something called “Title IX” a civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in any school or any government-funded service.

The last upgrade requires a proper response to possible future sexual harassment. It mandates schools to always notify parents, guardians, and the designated Title IX coordinator. It also allows anyone to report any case of sexual harassment, sex discrimination, even verbal or written abuse. It requires all Title IX coordinators to be properly trained, as well as the school staff though they are obligated to promptly investigate any formal complaint.

The study found between 2017 and 2018 there were 14,938 sexual violence incidents, 14,152 sexual assault cases. And that between 2015 and 2018 the incidents of rape or rape attempts increased  99%.

When it comes to post k-12 policies, in college each university is supposed to create its own laws. Some like the University of Iowa provide self-defense classes, others such as the University of Oregon make all freshmen view a play called “It can’t be raped”. But there are also the ones who have focused more on creating laws concerning consent, laws like “just yes means yes”, University of Minnesota, Texas A&M University, University of Virginia, Indiana University, and the University of New Hampshire.

A lot of colleges are starting to create programs, victim safe spaces, and train future doctors, nurses, and teachers about how to act whenever they confront a sexual assault victim at their workplaces.

A study made by The Sexual Health Initiative to Foster Transformation at Columbia University and Barnard College revealed that 22 % of participants experienced some sort of unwanted sexual contact. The greater number of incidents were against straight women, while the rates were highest among LGBTQ+ students. Also, 12%  of male participants declared having gone under some sort of sexual assault.

Finland

This Nordic country is world-known for being one of the best countries when it comes to life quality, social justice, and education. Finland was one of the first countries to legalize LGBTIQ+ people in 1971 and today it has one of the most openly LGBTIQ+ supportive societies. When it comes to women’s rights, Finland was the first European country to approve women’s right to vote (1906). The current Finnish education system was created in 1970 and has not changed since. The system is based on equality and placing the child’s needs in the center.

LGTBIQ+

Despite being considered one of the most egalitarian countries, Riikka Taavetti, seminarian at the University of Helsinki, talks about 1,600 people studying the situation of LGBTIQ+ youth. Showing that queer students did not fare as well as their cis-hetero counterparts. Taavetti also explains how schools keep promoting traditional gender stereotypes such as gender-segregated toilets.  And urges all teachers to make small but meaningful acts: gender-neutral restrooms and changing rooms, neutral gender word use...

In spite of this being Finland’s school’s reality since 2017, Finnish authorities created a guideline to push centers to improve gender diversity, leaving traditional gender roles behind. Indeed, the major LGBTIQ+ rights organization in the country has provided a manual for teachers to use for an egalitarian education.

The fact that Finland has created official gender and sexual equality rules, it says a lot about the authorities’ national concern about a real socially equal country.

Sexual abuse

Facing the popular belief about Finland, seen as the feminist and save space for women and young girls, the truth is that even though rape and harassment are totally illegal and jail convicted, the sexual abuse rate among Finnish women and adolescents has increased over the past years. Actually, the cases have increased from 2000 (579 rape and 504 sexual assault) to 2018 (1393 rape 1373 sexual assault). Teenagers and young girls are indeed the most likely to be harassed. It is estimated that nine girls and three boys are victims of some sort of sexual violence.

Finland counts with some bills regarding all sorts of child abuse.

Despite the increasing crisis, public schools have tried to place programs, protocols and make the class a safe space able to talk about any matter, especially in subjects such as Philosophy and Social Studies.

So despite some news of teachers assaulters, schools and media coverings are trying to give voice to this reality by speaking the truth and not educating future generations how to lower the possibilities of getting assaulted but educating on not to assault.

Spain

After the forty-year dictatorship Spain made a lot of social inclusive changes. A lot of people even consider it one of the most feminist and LGBTIQ+ friendly country in the world. But when it comes to education, even though the public Spanish system is extolled by a lot of world school professionals, it must be remembered that not even a hundred years ago half of the Spanish population was still illiterate, and this keeps affecting today’s generation. In fact, the system is still really traditional, mainly focused on grades, memorizing and standardized tests, giving small or no room to critical thought and social issues.

LGTBIQ+

Placing aside the fact of being seen as an LGBTIQ+ safe space, the truth is that following a study made by Red Iberoamericana de Educación LBTI about school bullying in gender and sexuality matters, it’s suffered by 23% of students, 14.43% via the internet, while 7.72% via mobile phone. Every three out of four students say they have seen and heard school abuse against sexual and gender identity, 6.4% of these have seen rough beatings. Out of all the students that have been victims of bullying, 43% have thought of suicide and 17% have attempted it.

School laws are mainly implemented by the autonomous communities’ authorities. Some have specific laws against all LGBTIQ+ bullying (Andalucia, Canary Islands, Navarra, Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia, Extremadura, and Murcia), others for some specific kinds of LGBTIQ+ bullying (Aragon, Valencian Country, and Castilla and Leon), and the rest directly don’t have any specific law against LGBTIQ+ bullying.

Besides the lack of safety that the authorities give to queer kids outside school, in some communities it is becoming even impossible to be safe in class. The far-right party Vox, governing Murcia and Andalucia has created a new regulation called “Parental Pin”. This measure makes all school centers inform and send authorizations to all parents about extracurricular talks and activities, those given by a non-school teacher. This gives all the power to parents. If the parents don’t want their kid to attend a talk or activity, the kid can’t go. Leaving no room to their child’s voice and morals. The parental pin affects queer children and the acceptance of the LGBTIQ+ community from a young age because a lot of these extra talks are about sexuality, feminism, and diversity, and parents who dislike diversity cannot educate them on those values at school. An act that is actually against the Spanish Constitution and international child rights. “No parent’s morals can be among any children's education” article 27.

Sexual abuse

Spain could be named as a pioneer country on children’s rights and safety. It counts many anti-child cases of abuse and even passed a  new law recently. This new protection measure guarantees youngsters and adolescents against all sorts of abuse (physical, online harassment) and increases awareness, protection,  and compensation. It also rises up to 55 years the age that people who suffered sexual abuse as a kid can report their case.

In Spain, talking about sexual abuse, harassment...depends on each school and teacher. But it is definitely not talked about enough. Sexuality and sexual values such as consent should be taught. But the reality is that minors duffer almost half of the annual sexual abuse reports, the majority committed by their own teachers. Following a study made in 2020 by the ANAR Foundation, 3.7% of child abuse is committed by their teacher and 13.2% of abuses happen at school.

Every year hundreds of cases are reported but only a few get actual attention from authorities and media. Cases such as Jesuits, Marists or the latest one: an English teacher at a bilingual school in Madrid who abused over 36 kids are the ones who end up making it to the mainstream spot, but the others end up filed or untold.

Additional resources

1. LGBTQ+ Resources
2. NVVRC (national sexual violence resource center)
3. National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs
4. The Trevor Project
5. CUNY
6. LGBT National Hotline
7. NCEDSV (Nevada coalition to end domestic and sexual violence)
8. Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Issues in Counseling
9. GLAAD
10. FORGE (For Ourselves: Reworking Gender Expression)

References

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