Gender-and Sexuality-Based Violence among LGBTQ People: An Empirical Test of Norm-Centered Stigma Theory

LGBTQ people are at higher risk for violence compared with their heterosexual-cisgender counterparts (Katz-Wise & Hyde, 2012; Meyer, 2015), yet few studies consider the unique and overlapping experiences of lesbian women, gay men, bisexual men, bisexual women, trans men, trans women, queer women, and queer men. In particular, the separate but interrelated experiences of LGBTQ people and their intersectional identities of gender and sexuality are critical to examine as they relate to their victimization. Using nationally representative data collected from online LGBTQ panelists ( N = 1,604), this chapter provides an intersectional investigation of norm-centered stigma theory (NCST) (Worthen, 2020) with hetero-cis-normativity (a system of norms, privilege, and oppression that situates heterosexual cisgender people above all others) as the centralized overarching concept that helps us to understand gender-and sexuality-based violence among LGBTQ people. Specifically, social power axes including gender identity (cisgender woman, cisgender man, transgender woman, and transgender man), sexual identity (lesbian, gay, bisexual), and queer identity (based on self-identification as queer), and interactions among these axes of social power, are investigated as they moderate the relationships between violations of hetero-cis-normativity (LGBTQ identity) and stigmatizing experiences associated with such norm violations (gender-and sexualitybased violence) in order to best understand LGBTQ negativity. Hetero-cis-normativity and LGBTQ negativity Because trans people violate the presumption of cisnormativity and LGBQ people violate the ‘heterosexual assumption’ (Herek, 2007, p. 907), overall, LGBTQ people can be at greater risk for gender-and sexuality-based negativity when compared with cisnormative and heterosexual people (Meyer, 2003; Schilt & Westbrook, 2009; Coulter et al., 2018; Worthen, 2020). Specifically, scholars have argued that violence among LGBTQ people is connected to negativities associated with their violations of hetero-cis-normativity (Schilt & Westbrook, 2009; Ball, 2013; Meyer, 2015; Javaid, 2018; Worthen, 2020). In particular, due to their non-hetero-cis-normative identities, LGBTQ people can be targeted, though in differing ways based on gender and sexuality (to be discussed later). Overall, LGBTQ attacks are often motivated by the desire to reinforce culturally ‘appropriate’ norms regarding gender and sexual identity through punishing those who violate hetero-cis-normativity (Franklin, 1998; Schilt & Westbrook, 2009; Meyer, 2015; Worthen, 2020).