Facing Up to Sexual Assault in Queer Communities

Source: Karina Caverdos - Chernenko/ iStock

Survivors of sexual assault include people of all genders, sexual orientations, ethnicities, social classes, and other diverse identities and backgrounds. Yet the majority of public discussions center on cisgender heterosexual women. Of course, these are important discussions given the high number of women who are assaulted. However, it is important to make room to discuss other populations, too. Galop surveyed over 1,000 LGBTQ+ people in the UK and found that 77 percent reported having experienced sexual assault. Yet, there is hardly any discussion on sexual assault in queer communities.

Some specific factors make queer populations more vulnerable to sexual assaults and raise barriers to reporting them. Societal marginalization, familial rejection, homelessness (often due to familial rejection), and institutional homophobia and transphobia heighten vulnerabilities. Perpetrators of sexual assault can more easily target people in queer communities because those targets can be more isolated and less likely to be believed or taken seriously.

In its survey, Galop identified that 54 percent of the perpetrators of sexual violence towards LGBTQ+ people were heterosexual. A study by the TUC (Trades Union Congress) found that 68 percent of LGBTQ+ workers experienced at least one type of sexual harassment at work, and 12 percent of LGBTQ+ women reported being seriously sexually assaulted or raped at work.

Sexual assault also happens within queer communities. A report by SurvivorsUK found that 43 percent of gay and bisexual men have been involved in sexual activity that they felt was a bad experience at the time, but, looking back, now believed it was sexual assault, revealing that men aged 45 to 54 may be less likely to identify sexual violence at the time of the incident. Also, 50 percent of respondents to the study reported having been touched in a sexual or intimate way without their consent; 31 percent of those respondents said the incidents occurred in a bar or club. And yet, a majority of gay and bisexual men did not report sexual assault to the police.

Seventy-eight percent of men aged 18-34; 94 percent of men aged 45-54; and 100 percent of men aged 55 and older did not report to the police. This may be due to current and historical homophobic discrimination. In his book An Intersectional Guide for Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse and Their Allies, Jeremy Sachs reminds us that the generation of gay men who were affected by the UK law of Section 28 (the ban on “promoting homosexuality”) was also the generation that faced the AIDS epidemic. Many gay men of that generation still feel the stigma towards gay sex and face an enormous amount of shame, which prevents them from openly discussing the sexual abuse they suffered.

Some sexual assaults also happen in the context of Chemsex (the intentional use of crystal methamphetamine, mephedrone, and/or GHB, during sex), when someone has sex with a person who is unable to consent due to the influence of drugs. In my consulting room, clients who have endured sexual assault in this context do not want to report to the police for fear that they would be blamed for it — “You were in a sex party on drugs; you brought it on yourself” — which is also a common judgement from LGBTQ+ communities outside of Chemsex circles.

Another form of sexual assault in queer communities that is often not discussed is in the context of conversion “practices,” a harmful practice also called conversion “therapy” that aims to change the sexual orientation or the gender identity of a queer person into being heterosexual and cisgender. One form that conversion practices have taken is what is called “corrective rape,” which means sexually assaulting a queer person to “teach” them that gay sex is unwanted and/or heterosexual sex is best. Some conversion practices are unfortunately still legal in the UK.

People who live with HIV may also be at risk of sexual coercion and sexual abuse when perpetrators threaten to out their HIV status publicly if they don’t comply with their demands.

The Galop survey found that 79 percent of LGBTQ+ were sexually abused by someone they knew, and 17 percent reported being sexually abused by a stranger. However, trans women reported nearly twice the proportion of sexual violence perpetrated against them by a stranger, contrary to the fearmongering narrative that trans women themselves pose a public danger in public bathrooms.

Many LGBTQ+ people I see in my practice who have been sexually abused do not want to report because they fear being outed, not believed, or re-traumatized by medical and legal professionals who lack training and understanding of LGBTQ+ lives and cultures. Kyle Martin McGovern, a trainee health psychologist and doctoral researcher at the University of Bristol, presented an award-winning poster on his current research at the National Sexual Violence and Health Research Day in June 2025, reporting that sexual- and gender-minority individuals described being conditioned to conceal their experiences due to stigma, gender norms, and past invalidation. McGovern also found that health care services often lacked LGBTQ+ literacy, leading to misrecognition, dismissal, or retraumatization. He concluded that when care is affirming, it can be profoundly healing. McGovern’s research is platformed by Lucy Frank, a psychosexual and relationship therapist, in her podcast “Sex Tells.”

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There are also issues with the attitude towards sexual violence within the queer communities. The SurvivorsUK survey shows that 32 percent of queer people think the LGBTQ+ community is supportive, but 19 percent reported their sexual assault being fetishized. In my consulting room, I sometimes hear gay men say that when they shared their experience of sexual assault with peers, some of the responses included comments like, “But was he hot?”

Sexual assault being fetishized, normalized, or dismissed within queer communities may be a coping strategy to avoid the painful reality of their vulnerability, given that these communities are already vulnerable to so much discrimination. It may also be a coping strategy to attempt to feel safer and avoid facing the fact that aggressors are not only homophobic and transphobic outsiders; they can also from within. If we have to face the fact that there are some aggressors from within, then who can we trust? These thoughts can be highly distressing.

So, what can we do? We need more therapists who are trained in trauma and in LGBTQ+ people's experiences to avoid societal oppression and judgements being replicated in the therapeutic space because it is re-traumatizing. We also need more work to be done in our society. The Galop study recommends creating respectful campaigns and education resources about LGBTQ+ relationships, shifting the “public story” of sexual violence to incorporate LGBTQ+ people and their relationships, and addressing transphobic and anti-LGBTQ+ prejudices. Queer communities also need to make a cultural shift in becoming more caring towards each other and creating spaces for fun and joy as well as spaces for sharing struggles non-judgmentally, so that it is safer to speak up about sexual abuse and find the right support.