Outside Looking In: The Community Impacts of Anti-Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Hate Crime

TLDR

Hate crime scholars argue that hate crime harms extend beyond victims to their reference communities, but this claim lacks empirical evidence. This pilot study used focus group data from 15 LGB individuals to examine how anti‑LGB hate crime harms spread to nonvictims in the LGB community. Focus group data from 15 LGB participants were analyzed to assess the spread of anti‑LGB hate crime harms to nonvictims. The study found that anti‑LGB hate violence negatively affects nonvictims’ psychological and emotional well‑being, discourages disclosure of sexual orientation, and, in some cases, mobilizes community members.

Abstract

Hate crime scholars have long argued that the harms of hate crime extend beyond the immediate victim to negatively impact the victim's reference community. However, this assertion is speculative and in need of empirical support. Utilizing focus group data from 15 people who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or pansexual, this pilot study explored the extent to which the harms of anti-LGB hate crime spread beyond the immediate victim to impact nonvictims in the LGB community. The findings suggest that anti-LGB hate violence can have profound and negative effects on the psychological and emotional well-being of nonvictims who are LGB and may result in dramatic behavioral change as well. The findings also indicate that hate violence negatively affected participants' decisions to disclose their sexual orientation to others. On a more positive note, however, awareness of such violence may also mobilize some people within the LGB community.