#ALLBlackLivesMatter: Black Politics, Society, and Intersectionality

This session will allow students to examine and discuss the portrayal of the LGBT community in society such as through media or politics compared to the real every day LGBT community experiences. In addition, the session will engage students in dialogue on reclaiming their identity and owning who they are through an interactive group activity. This session will provide an opportunity for students to hear the experiences, ideas, and feedback of individuals who have a different sexual identity than their own

Societal Perceptions and Sexual Assault/Reporting in the GSM Community

Sexual assault, which is defined by the United States Department of Justice as “any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient,” is an epidemic that is spreading across the United States of America at alarming rates. Conservative studies put a woman’s risk of sexual assault in their lifetime at one in six (Joseph, Gray & Mayer 2013), with other studies placing the number at one in five (Fisher, Daigle, & Cullen, 2009), and the number rising to one in four during college (Senn et al., 2013; Joseph et al., 2013; Tatum & Foubert, 2009). Foubert & Marriott (2005) stated the statistic as an equivalent of 99 women per hour being assault in America. Even men, who are often not thought of as victims of sexual assault, have numbers ranging from as conservative as one in thirty-three (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000) to the likely more accurate one in six (Friedman, M. S., Marshal, M. P., Guadamuz, T. E., Wei, C., Wong, C. F., Saewyc, E. M., & Stall, R. 2011). However, the problem is the research on sexual assault specific to members of what the National Health Institute refers to as the Gender/Sexuality Minority (here on referred to as GSM) community, is miles behind that of its heterosexual counterparts. This research proposal’s purpose is to examine what little research is out there before launching into an explanation of a study that would fill some of these gaps and aim to give a voice to GSM sexual assault victims themselves