Sexual Consent and Communication Among the Sexual Minoritized: The Role of Heteronormative Sex Education,Trauma,and Dual Identities

Abstract

Prior research and the #MeToo movement have recognized the complexities of sexual consent and how it contributes to experiences of sexual violence. A heteronormative perspective often dominates discussions on sexual violence at the expense of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual minoritized individuals’ (LGBTQ+) experiences. Utilizing focus groups with LGBTQ+ people to discuss sexual consent, themes relating to sex education, defining sex in queer relationships, trauma and victimization, and overlapping gender and sexual orientation identities emerged. Findings are presented in the context of feminist and queer theoretical perspectives with particular focus on power inequity.

Keywords

sexual consent sexual violence LGBTQ trauma victimization

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adams-Curtis

L. E.

Forbes

G. B.

(2004). College women’s experiences of sexual coercion: A review of cultural, perpetrator, victim, and situational variables. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 5(2), 91–122.

Alcoff

L. M.

(2018). Rape and resistance. John Wiley & Sons.

Ball

(2016). Queer/ing criminology. In: Criminology and queer theory (pp. 53–74). Palgrave Macmillan.

Beaulieu

Dunton

Williams

L. M.

Porter

J. L.

(2017). The impact of sexual orientation on college student victimization: An examination of sexual minority and non-sexual minority student populations. Psychology, 8(11), 1728.

Belknap

(2001). The invisible woman: Gender, crime, and justice (2nd ed.). Wadsworth.

Beres

M. A.

(2007). ‘Spontaneous’ sexual consent: An analysis of sexual consent literature. Feminism & Psychology, 17(1), 93–108.

Braun

Clarke

(2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.

Braun

Clarke

(2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11(4), 589–597.

Buist

Lenning

(2015). Queer criminology. Routledge.

10.

Burgess-Proctor

(2006). Intersections of race, class, gender, and crime: Future directions for feminist criminology. Feminist Criminology, 1(1), 27–47.

11.

Burns

Walker

(2005). Feminist methodologies. In Somekh

Lewis

(Eds.), Research Methods in the Social Sciences, 66–73. Sage.

12.

Button

D. M.

Worthen

M. G.

(2014). General strain theory for LGBQ and SSB youth: The importance of intersectionality in the future of feminist criminology. Feminist Criminology, 9(4), 270–297.

13.

Carbado

D. W.

Crenshaw

K. W.

Mays

V. M.

Tomlinson

(2013). Intersectionality: Mapping the movements of a theory. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 10(2), 303–312.

14.

Chavez

(2008). Conceptualizing from the inside: Advantages, complications, and demands on insider positionality. The Qualitative Report, 13(3), 474–494.

15.

Chesney-Lind

Morash

(2013). Transformative feminist criminology: A critical re-thinking of a discipline. Critical Criminology, 21(3), 287–304.

16.

Cho

Crenshaw

K. W.

McCall

(2013). Toward a field of intersectionality studies: Theory, applications, and praxis. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 38(4), 785–810.

17.

Conroy

N. E.

Krishnakumar

Leone

J. M.

(2015). Reexamining issues of conceptualization and willing consent: The hidden role of coercion in experiences of sexual acquiescence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 30(11), 1828–1846.

18.

Crenshaw

(1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and antiracist politics. Routledge.

19.

Crenshaw

(1990). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review 43, 1241.

20.

Crenshaw

K. W.

(2017). On intersectionality: Essential writings. The New Press.

21.

Day

(2012). A reflexive lens: Exploring dilemmas of qualitative methodology through the concept of reflexivity. Qualitative Sociology Review, 8(1), 60–85.

22.

Dank

Lachman

Zweig

J. M.

Yahner

(2014). Dating violence experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. Journal of Youth & Adolescence, 43, 8467.

23.

Edwards

K. M.

Sylaska

K. M.

Barry

J. E.

Moynihan

M. M.

Banyard

V. L.

Cohn

E. S.

Walsh

W. A.

Ward

S. K.

(2015). Physical dating violence, sexual violence, and unwanted pursuit victimization: A comparison of incidence rates among sexual-minority and heterosexual college students. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 30, 580–600.

24.

Ehrlich

S. L.

(2001). Representing rape: Language and sexual consent. Psychology Press.

25.

Ellison

Green

K. M.

Richardson

Snorton

C. R.

(2017). We got issues: Toward a black trans*/studies. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 4(2), 162–169.

26.

Faderman

(2015). The gay revolution: The story of the struggle. Simon and Schuster.

27.

Follins

L. D.

Lassiter

J. M.

(eds.). (2017). Black LGBT health in the United States: The intersection of race, gender, and sexual orientation. Lexington Books.

28.

Greene

(2000). African American lesbian and bisexual women. Journal of Social Issues, 56(2), 239–249.

29.

Guest

Namey

McKenna

(2017). How many focus groups are enough? Building an evidence base for nonprobability sample sizes. Field Methods, 29(1), 3–22.

30.

Han

C. S.

(2007). They don’t want to cruise your type: Gay men of color and the racial politics of exclusion. Social Identities, 13(1), 51–67.

31.

Harrison

Barlow

J. H.

(1995). Focused group discussion: A” quality” method for health research? Health Psychology Update, 20, 11–13.

32.

Hunter

M. A.

(2010). All the gays are white and all the blacks are straight: Black gay men, identity, and community. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 7(2), 81–92.

33.

Ison

(2019). ‘It’s not just men and women’: LGBTQIA people and# MeToo. In #MeToo and the politics of social change (pp. 151–167). Palgrave Macmillan.

34.

Jacobson

Mustafa

(2019). Social identity map: A reflexivity tool for practicing explicit positionality in critical qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 18, 1–12.

35.

Jaffe

(2018). The collective power of# MeToo. Dissent, 65(2), 80–87.

36.

James

Herman

Rankin

Keisling

Mottet

Anafi

M. A.

(2016). The report of the 2015 US transgender survey. National Center for Transgender Equality.

37.

Johnson

L. M.

Matthews

T. L.

Napper

S. L.

(2016). Sexual orientation and sexual assault victimization among US college students. The Social Science Journal, 53(2), 174–183.

38.

Jones

L. C.

de Heer

B. A.

Prior

S. M.

(2016). Campus sexual assault: Conceptualizing vulnerable groups in an unfolding legal context. In Paludi

(Ed.), Campus action against sexual assault: needs, policies, procedures, and training programs (pp. 25–47). Praeger/ABC-CLIO.

39.

Jozkowski

K. N.

Marcantonio

T. L.

Hunt

M. E.

(2017). College students’ sexual consent communication and perceptions of sexual double standards: A qualitative investigation. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 49(4), 237–244.

40.

Jozkowski

K. N.

Peterson

Z. D.

(2013). College students and sexual consent: Unique insights. Journal of Sex Research, 50(6), 517–523.

41.

Kelly

Lubitow

Town

Mercier

(2020). Collective trauma in queer communities. Sexuality & Culture, 24(5), 1522–1543.

42.

Koss

M. P.

Gidycz

C. A.

Wisniewski

(1987). The scope of rape: Incidence and prevalence of sexual aggression and victimization in a national sample of higher education students. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55(2), 162.

43.

Krebs

Lindquist

Berzofsky

Shook-Sa

Peterson

Planty

Stroop

(2016). Campus climate survey validation study (CCSVS) final technical report. Bureau of Justice Statistics Research and Development Series.

44.

Krueger

D. A.

Casey

M. A.

(2014). Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research. Sage.

45.

Loick

(2020). “. . . as if it were a thing.” A feminist critique of consent. Constellations, 27(3), 412–422.

46.

MacKinnon

C. A.

(1989). Toward a feminist theory of the state. Harvard University Press.

47.

Madill

Jordan

Shirley

(2000). Objectivity and reliability in qualitative analysis: Realist, contextualist and radical constructionist epistemologies. British Journal of Psychology, 91(1), 1–20.

48.

McNeill

(2013). Sex education and the promotion of heteronormativity. Sexualities, 16(7), 826–846.

49.

Mogul

J. L.

Ritchie

A. J.

Whitlock

(2011). Queer (in) justice: The criminalization of LGBT people in the United States (Vol. 5). Beacon Press.

50.

Moussawi

Vidal-Ortiz

(2020). A queer sociology: On power, race, and decentering whiteness. In Sociological Forum, 35(4), 1272–1289.

51.

Nadal

K. L.

Erazo

Shulman

Han

Deutsch

(2017). Caught at the intersec-tions: Microaggressions toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people of color. In Ruth

Santacruz

(Eds.), LGBT psychology and mental health: Emerging research and advances (pp. 133–152). Praeger.

52.

Onwuachi-Willig

(2018). What about# UsToo: The invisibility of race in the# MeToo movement. Yale LJF, 128, 105.

53.

Pugh

Becker

(2018). Exploring definitions and prevalence of verbal sexual coercion and its relationship to consent to unwanted sex: Implications for affirmative consent standards on college campuses. Behavioral Sciences, 8(8), 69.

54.

Ray

C. M.

Tyler

K. A.

Gordon Simons

(2018). Risk factors for forced, incapacitated, and coercive sexual victimization among sexual minority and heterosexual male and female college students. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(5–6), 2241–2261.

55.

Renzetti

C. M.

(1992). Violent betrayal: Partner abuse in lesbian relationships. Sage Publications.

56.

Renzetti

C. M.

(2013). Feminist criminology. Routledge.

57.

Ronan

(2020). New FBI hate crime report shows increase in anti-LGBTQ attacks. Human Rights Campaign.

58.

Rothman

E. F.

Exner

Baughman

A. L.

(2011). The prevalence of sexual assault against people who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual in the United States: A systematic review. Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 12(2), 55–66.

59.

Rudolf

(2017). A very brief history of LGBTQ parenting. Family Equality.

60.

Schulze

Koon-Magnin

(2017). Gender, sexual orientation, and rape myth acceptance: Preliminary findings from a sample of primarily LGBQ-identified survey respondents. Violence and Victims, 32(1), 159–180.

61.

Sensoy

DiAngelo

(2017). Is everyone really equal? An introduction to key concepts in social justice education. Teachers College Press.

62.

Smalls

S. P.

Powell

E. H.

(2019). Introduction: An impossibility: Black queer and trans* aesthetics. The Black Scholar, 49, 1–5.

63.

Smith

I. E.

(2016). Minority vs. minoritized: Why the noun just doesn’t cut it. Odyssey.

64.

Snorton

C. R.

(2014). Nobody is supposed to know: Black sexuality on the down low. U of Minnesota Press.

65.

Stark

Hester

(2019). Coercive control: Update and review. Violence against women, 25(1), 81–104.

66.

Sutter

Perrin

P. B.

(2016). Discrimination, mental health, and suicidal ideation among LGBTQ people of color. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63(1), 98.

67.

Testa

VanZile-Tamsen

Livingston

J. A.

Koss

M. P.

(2004). Assessing women’s experiences of sexual aggression using the sexual experiences survey: Evidence for validity and implications for research. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 28(3), 256–265.

68.

Van Anders

S. M

. (2015). Beyond sexual orientation: Integrating gender/sex and diverse sexualities via sexual configurations theory. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 44(5), 1177–1213.

69.

Vidal-Ortiz

(2014). Whiteness. Transgender Studies Quarterly, 1(1–2), 264–266.

70.

Waldner-Haugrud

(1999). Sexual coercion in lesbian and gay relationships: A review and critique. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 4(2), 139–149.

71.

Walker

Valcore

Evans

Stephens

(2021). Experiences of Trans scholars in criminology and criminal justice. Critical Criminology, 29(1), 37–56.

72.

Walters

M. L.

Chen

Breiding

M. J.

(2013). The national intimate partner and sexual violence survey (NISVS): 2010 findings on victimization by sexual orientation. National Center for Injury Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

73.

Ward

Schneider

(2009). The reaches of heteronormativity: An introduction. Gender & Society, 23(4), 433–439.

74.

Wilkinson

(1998). Focus groups in feminist research: Power, interaction, and the co-construction of meaning. In Women’s studies international forum, 21(1), 111–125.

75.

Wilkinson

(1999). Focus groups: A feminist method. Psychology of women quarterly, 23(2), 221–244.

76.

Willis

Jozkowski

K. N.

(2018). Barriers to the success of affirmative consent initiatives: An application of the social ecological model. American Journal of Sexuality Education, 13(3), 324–336.

77.

Wodda

Panfil

V. R.

(2018). Insert sexy title here: Moving toward a sex-positive criminology. Feminist Criminology, 13(5), 583–608.

78.

Wodda

Panfil

V. R.

(2021). Sex positive criminology. Routledge.

79.

Woods

J. B.

(2014). Queer contestations and the future of a critical “queer” criminology. Critical Criminology, 22(1), 5–19.

80.

Zweig

J. M.

Barber

B. L.

Eccles

J. S.

(1997). Sexual coercion and well-being in young adulthood: Comparisons by gender and college status. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 12(2), 291–308.