Respect Detectors: A support and educational group engaging LGBTQ activists to prevent violence in their community

Abstract

Abstract: Respect Detectors is a manualized community education program designed to inform workshop participants on the specialized needs of LGBTQ-identified people experiencing domestic violence or sexual assault. The pilot of the program, hosted by University of Southern Maine’s Center for Sexualities and Gender Diversity, involved a small group of dedicated community members, most of whom were LGBTQ. Information generated by group participants included discussion of the intersectionality of their sexual and gender identities with the experience of being a domestic violence or sexual assault survivor. Details about several experiences of oppression in the context of multiple cultural identities is a particularly valuable component of these discussions. Professional social workers and other mental health providers should consider this information an important insight about cultural sensitivity to LGBTQ clients, particularly those who experience domestic violence or assault. The authors highlight how the group participants motivated each other to continue to be politically active around this issue in their community. Recommendations include being attentive to the specialized needs of LGBTQ people as a group, and how the experience of belonging to a group that is discriminated against further impacts traumatic events like domestic violence.

Keywords: LGBTQ; LGBT; support group; domestic violence; sexual violence; oppression; sexual assault; prevention; active by-stander