​Anyone can be a victim of sexual assault or child sexual abuse regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, or socio-economic background.  Sexual Assault and other forms of interpersonal violence exist within the LGBTQ+ communities and are at highest risk for experiencing this type of abuse, especially by non-members of this community. Sexual violence inherently is an abuse that is sourced in power and control; thus is used to commit heinous acts against already marginalized communities. 

According to research conducted by the CDC (Center for Disease Control):

• 44% of lesbian women, 61% of bisexual women, and 35% of heterosexual women experience rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
• Twenty-six percent of gay men, 37% of bisexual men, and 29% of heterosexual men experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetime. • Approximately 1 in 5 bisexual women (22%) and nearly 1 in 10 heterosexual women (9%) have been raped by an intimate partner in their lifetime.

Barriers already exist when reporting sexual violence and folks within the LGBTQ+ community may face additional barriers to reporting. 
 

• Fear of isolation within in the community.
• Fear of Law Enforcement.
• Fear of not being believed.
• Fear of being blamed.
• Fear of experiences being minimized by friends, family, people in authority, and non-members of the community.
• Having to explain their experience in more detail than one would ask a cis-gender heterosexual survivor or a survivor of male-female assault.
• Fear of increasing people’s homophobia or being seen as a traitor in their community because they told their story to cis-gender straight people.
• Fear of being “outed” (having their sexual orientation revealed without their consent).
• Mistakenly being seen as the perpetrator
• Being treated in a homophobic manner by police, hospital staff, service providers, counselors, and others.

​Any survivor of sexual trauma has the right to receive trauma informed care services. The Julie Valentine Center works to provide LGBTQ+ Affirming and Trauma Informed Services. It is our goal to create a space where all survivors feel safe and comfortable. 

Local Resources: 
Upstate Pride: https://www.upstatepridesc.org/
Pride Link: https://pridelink.org/
Gender Benders: http://genderbenders.org/index.html
Sources: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/cdc_nisvs_victimization_final-a.pdf