A recent Statistics Canada study, released on February 28th, states that based on 2004 figures (the last year for which figures are available) lesbians, gay men and bisexuals experience higher rates of robbery and violence, including physical and sexual assault, than do our heterosexual counterparts. The study did not include any figures for transsexuals.
The study also stated the chances of being victimized by violence were twice as high for lesbians and gay men as heterosexuals and 4.5 times greater for bisexuals, which was rather surprising.
Despite the figures the study indicated that 9 in 10 gay, lesbian or bisexual Canadians responded they were “somewhat” or “very” satisfied with their personal safety.
Setting aside the fact that the GLBTQ community has been saying for years that our people experience higher rates of violence and abuse and that the incidents of abuse that are perpetuated against us tend to be more vicious, one has to wonder how such a statistically high number of respondents reported such a low concern with their level of safety.
Part of it, of course, is that in the usual day-to-day experiences of people where one just gets on with the daily grind of earning a living and creating some sort of life for oneself. Here, violence is not literally an ‘every day occurance.’ Yet, we all have either experienced being bashed, harassed, or threatened or know someone who has.
A few years ago, author and researcher Doug Janoff wrote a book called Pink Blood which chronicled primarily gay, but also lesbian and trans, directed homophobic violence over the ten year period preceding the publication of the book. One of the things he noted was the level of viciousness such crimes often had.
It should also be noted that Janoff perceived these crimes in terms of “homophobia,” even those perpetuated against transsexuals and the transgendered. The argument he made to support this was, essentially, the perpetuator was reacting out of homophobia even when it was a transperson he (and the overwhelming majority of perpetuators were male) attacked. The rage was based on a perceived sexual threat not a gender threat. Not surprisingly, that view came under fire from some trans activists.
What the StatsCan survey apparently didn’t cover were the levels of viciousness. It is difficult, statistically speaking, to quantify such levels but there is no denying they are there. Multiple stabbing of the victim, mutilations, over-the-top pounding of the head against a hard surface; stuff that any viewer of programs like Law & Order: SVU will recognize being described as “up close and personal” as opposed to, say, “just” shooting, hitting or stabbing someone.
Other studies over the years have suggested that such attacks are the result of “homosexual panic.” In fact, so-called homosexual panic has been used as a defence tool in many of these cases. Somehow the accused “lost it” to such a degree when the victim propositioned or groped him that he experienced a temporary disconnect, a momentary period of - for lack of a better word - insanity.
This argument at one time was effective. Thankfully, it is increasingly being seen by the Crown as the pile of manure it really is. A reasonable and, one could argue, non-homophobic/transphobic person upon being propositioned, even if offended by such a suggestion, would simply say no. Following the logic of this homosexual panic defence it would be acceptable for a woman receiving unwanted sexual attention or innuendo to stab the guy 35 times. Clearly that would not be the case and, equally clearly, something else is going on with the accused.
Homosexual panic is not always about hated and repressed homosexual feelings on the part of the accused (although it can be), and it’s not about how a red-blooded heterosexual male was so aghast at being hit on by a gay man he couldn’t control himself and lashed out. The obvious is so obvious that it is often overlooked in such cases. What “homosexual panic” is about is homophobic reaction. It’s akin to racism.
The accused hates and loathes homosexuals so much, he attempts to erase us, destroy us when “confronted” by one of us. The level of viciousness in so many of these crimes against us is often not about anything more than the rage the perpetuator carries towards someone not like he is, just as the racist’s rage against people of colour is rage against anything not white. It is lashing out and, it could be argued, is a way to not only teach the queer individual but also the community at large a “lesson”.
In the case of transphobic attacks there are similarities but there is a key difference as well. Whereas violence against gay men, lesbians and bisexuals can be random and often spontaneous, as in someone getting bashed on their way home from the bar for instance, attacks against transsexuals usually - although not always - occur after or during an intimate encounter when the attacker suddenly realizes the person he is with is “really a guy.” Of course, she isn’t “a guy” but if one defines male and female/masculine and feminine by plumbing - and many people do - then as far as the perpetuator is concerned he’s just been tricked into having ‘gay sex.’
However, not all attacks against transsexuals involved sexual encounters. Many are attacked because someone ‘read’ them. In other words, the perpetuator picked up on the reality this individual is transsexual and reacted to that reality. That is transphobia just as reacting to someone being gay, lesbian or bisexual is homophobia.
However one may feel about homosexuals, bisexuals or transsexuals, it does not give them the right to attack, beat, maim, or kill us.
Over the years, I have often equated bashings to pogroms. Bashing is not just about one individual (or, more usually, several individuals) beating up a fag or a dyke. It’s about “sending a message” to the community. It’s about “putting us in our place”. It is about terrorizing and it’s about erasure.
The various pogroms launched against Jews over the last several hundred years share a similar dynamic. Pogroms were not about Christians being “offended” by Jewish religious practices, they were about ensuring ‘those Jews’ understood just where they were in the pecking order. Blood libel, accusations of usury and price-gouging, suggestions that Jewish males were out to corrupt Christian women (and sometimes boys) - these were all covers for what was really happening; profound hatred and mistrust of anything that was seen as The Other. Such is the case of violence against us.
I found it surprising that violence against bisexuals was two and a half times higher than violence against gay men and lesbians. As I thought about it, what occurred to me is that just as the gay and lesbian community tends to dismiss bisexuals as lesbians or gay men who haven’t yet come out fully (untrue, by the way), a sort of ‘homo-lite’, certain elements within the heterosexual community might see bisexuals as some sort of ‘sex traitor.’ Ridiculous, of course, but then we are not talking rational thought here....
I have yet to read the actual study but I can’t help but wonder in what sort of settings are bisexuals, as a group, being victimized? If they are attacked randomly by a group of young males out to bash some fags, then the individual was attacked because he was perceived as being gay or because she was perceived as being a dyke and not because they were actually bisexual. Another setting might be more personal. Someone finds out or is told the person they are close to, be it sexually or emotionally, has sex with members of their own gender as well.
Men, generally, act out physically when angry or feeling threatened in some way and women, generally, act out verbally. Not a hard and fast rule, I grant you, but typically-speaking a fair assessment. A trusted buddy informs you he ‘swings both ways.’ There are some straight men who will immediately interpret that as him wanting to get into their jeans when he very well may have no interest whatsoever in doing so. However, what his intentions may or may not be are not at issue. What is at issue is the reaction of the individual who becomes violent and the perceptions behind that violence.
Of course, violence is never excusable. In a civilized society, it is unacceptable and our courts reflect that. However, it is only recently our courts have started to reflect it when dealing with homophobic and, to a far lesser degree, transphobic violence.
The more exposure this sort of violence receives and the more non-homosexual and non-transfolk begin to understand what it is about, the more likely it will be that violence against us - be it physical or verbal - will be seen as totally unacceptable just as pogroms and lynchings are no longer acceptable.
