Nicole ‘Nic’ Johnson, PhD, started as a researcher investigating violence against women and through this work noticed a trend – sexual identity continuously arose as a “confounding variable.” Researchers frequently controlled for sexual identity, essentially erasing it from the research and moved on without further consideration. As a queer woman and survivor herself, Johnson began to delve into this recurrent and ignored aspect. This led to the creation of The Resistance Lab and the refocus of her research by acknowledging sexuality rather than controlling for it. This direction of inquiry included the Div. 44 nominated APA Science at Sunset research entitled, Addressing Sexual Violence within the LGBTQ+ Community through Consciousness Raising. The research behind this poster is reviewed below as well as an introduction to The Resistance Lab.
Rates of sexual violence with LGBTQ+ Community
A national survey of sexual violence (Walters et al., 2013) found that sexual minority individuals reported equal or higher rates of sexual violence as compared to heterosexual respondents, with the highest lifetime prevalence of sexual violence reported by bisexual women (74.9%), followed by bisexual men (47.3%), lesbian women (46.4%), heterosexual women (43.3%), gay men (40.2%) and finally, heterosexual men (20.8%). Additional research indicated that transgender individuals experience even greater risk, with a recent study finding rates of sexual violence and rape at more than twice those reported by cisgender LGBQ individuals (Langenderfer-Magruder et al., 2016).
Despite this evidence for sexual and gender minority individual’s increased risk of sexual violence, minimal research exists examining the creation or effectiveness of LGBTQ+ specific rape prevention programming.
Define It! Project
To address this gap within the current literature, Johnson adapted a rape prevention program for the LGBTQ+ community (Johnson, Corbett-Hone, Gutekunst, & Grove, in press). This program, named Define It!, is currently being employed on two college campuses in the United States.
Developed based on critical consciousness and bystander theories, Define It! moves beyond providing participants with narrow definitions of sexual violence and change, allowing participants to explore alternative narratives through open discussions about sexuality and sexual violence. The program aims to raise awareness of the role that rape culture plays in sexual violence. Johnson and Resistance Lab members adapted Define it! to be LGBTQ+ specific by engaging in a developmental process that began by asking for feedback from prevention providers and a group of LGBTQ+-identified students regarding the program’s accessibility, feasibility, and utility for LGBTQ+ students. Using this data, Define It! was then modified to create rape prevention programming that meets the unique needs of the LGBTQ+ community.
Define It! participants engage in a series of six structured sections of dialogue, consisting of open-ended questions. Participants 1.) review their comfort discussing sexuality and sexual relationships, 2.) discuss personal and societal influences on their expectations for sexual relationships and understandings of sexual consent, 3.) examine the origins of these expectations and societal influences on sexual violence, 4.) consider desired changes related to existing societal influences on sex and sexual violence including potential barriers to change and ways to overcome them, 5.) take personal accountability by committing to personal action plans and finally 6.) re-examine their comfort discussing sexuality and sexual relationships as they did in the first section. This final section creates a space for participants to explore their growth and assess new understandings.
During the evaluation process, the participants confirmed the need for sexual violence prevention programming specifically created for LGBTQ+ individuals given their unique experiences of victimization. Based on this feedback, Johnson and Resistance Lab members identified recommendations for future rape prevention training and programming: training should include discussion of the stereotypes of the LGBTQ+ community, introduction to basic helping skills, and education and rationale for and methods of consciousness-raising. In addition, facilitators should receive ally training, ongoing training in facilitation, and be recruited from the LGBTQ+ community. The structure of the rape prevention programming would ideally be an ongoing process beginning in elementary school. Programming should have specific emphasis on intersectionality, the role of stigma and societal norms on sexual violence, consciousness raising, bystander intervention and sexual communication and consent. Finally, programming must involve an explicit attempt to create comfort and safety among LGBTQ+ individuals and a conscious attention to and adaptation of language.
By honoring these recommendations, rape-prevention interventions can address the unique needs of LGBTQ+ individuals in their programming. These findings affirm the importance of creating specific programming for individuals with marginalized gender and sexual identities. Hopefully, through programs like Define it! which center on the most severely targeted identities, this research can inform future LGBTQ+ violence prevention efforts and ultimately reduce the prevalence of violence against sexual and gender minority individuals.
Beyond this programming which refocuses the rape-prevention conversation on LGBTQ+ individuals, Johnson’s work spans other important issues related to sexuality and gender-based violence. She directs a lab, The Resistance Lab, which strives to prevent gender-based violence through research and programming. Below, The Resistance Lab is reviewed more broadly.
The Resistance Lab
The Resistance Lab, directed by Johnson, an assistant professor in the College of Educationopens in new window at Lehigh University, working with masters-level, doctoral and undergraduate students, aims to end gender-based violence through feminist consciousness raising, high quality research and empirically supported programming. The Resistance Lab works collaboratively with other researchers, clinicians and community members to provide education about gender-based violence.
Through Define It!, additional LGBTQ+ community-based research and programming and research centering LGBTQ+ individuals, The Resistance Lab works to fill an important gap in gender-based violence research. In addition to this programming, research team members focus on important and understudied issues, such as the high rates of bisexual victimization, identity-based violence towards LGBTQ+ individuals and on adapting measures and demographics to be gender and sexual orientation inclusive.
The Resistance Lab aims to be an accessible and transparent source of information regarding gender-based violence. We regularly update our website with published studies and ongoing projects through our social media pages: Twitteropens in new window, Instagramopens in new window, Facebookopens in new window and the Resistance Lab websiteopens in new window. We post updates regarding our lab and relevant news or research articles related to women’s issues, LGBTQ+ issues and current events related to gender-based violence. We invite readers to engage with us on these platforms.
References
Dank, M., Lachman, P., Zweig, J. M., & Yahner, J. (2014). Dating violence experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth.opens in new windowJournal of Youth and Adolescence, 43, 846–857. https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/23946/412892-Dating-Violence-Experiences-of-Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-and-Transgender-Youth.PDF
Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2017). Criminal victimization, 2016 (Report No. NCJ251150). https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv16.pdfopens in new window
Johnson, N. L., Corbett-Hone, M., Gutekunst, M. H. C., & Grove, M. B. (in press). Addressing rape culture in the LGBTQ+ community through consciousness-raising: A developmental study. Psychology & Sexuality. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2019.1678192opens in new window
Langenderfer-Magruder, L., Walls, N. E., Kattari, S. K., Whitfield, D. L., & Ramos, D. (2016). Sexual victimization and subsequent police reporting by gender identity among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer adults. Violence and Victims, 31, 320–331. https://doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708.VV-D-14-00082opens in new window
Murchison, G. R., Boyd, M. A., & Pachankis, J. E. (2017). Minority stress and the risk of unwanted sexual experiences in LGBQ undergraduates. Sex Roles, 77, 221–238. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-016-0710-2opens in new window
Walters, M. L., Chen, J., & Breiding, M. J. (2013). The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS): 2010 findings on victimization by sexual orientation. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.