Sharing – Queer survivors of sexual abuse are frequently blamed for their own victimization

We really have to stop doing this. We need to grow up when it comes to anything related to sexual orientation. LGBTQ people deserve better, and all sexual abuse survivors deserve better.

“The IICSA report found that when queer people reported being sexually abused as kids, they received “poor responses” based on “stereotypical attitudes about sexual orientation.””

I’ve talked about this before. As a male survivor, I have spent years on this site dealing with people that simply assumed I was gay, for no other reason than the fact that I was abused by a male perpetrator. I’ve known plenty of other men who’ve been shunned because of a similar assumption, or the much worse assumption that survivors, especially male survivors or gay men, are likely to turn around and also sexually abuse others.

None of this is accurate. Yes, the abuse can leave you feeling unsafe and uncomfortable in your own body and with your own sexuality. That is a side effect of being raped sometimes. That is not something anyone should be ashamed to talk about and no matter where they land on the spectrum of gender and sexual preference they deserve the respect and privacy to figure that out themselves. None of us asked your opinion, and none of us want to hear about your own illusions of how sexuality works after being sexually abused at a young age.

The more mature attitude is to recognize that healing from sexual abuse is a process that looks different for everyone, whether they are gay, straight, bisexual, non-binary and any other thing you want to consider. We all deserve a better response than to be accused of bringing it upon ourselves.

All of us deserve that response. Every single one of us. What happened was the result of the actions of another person who sought to victimize someone. We are those victims. That is all.

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/05/queer-survivors-sexual-abuse-frequently-blamed-victimization/