Sexual Stigma and Peer Victimization of Sexually and Gender Diverse Youth in Ontario, Canada: Towards a Conceptualization of "Conversion Bullying"
Recent population-based studies provide convincing evidence for the role of social-structural factors in health and mental health risks among sexual minority adolescents and adults. Peer victimization of sexually and gender diverse youth (SGDY) is informed and enabled by pervasive institutional contexts and practices that promulgate sexual stigma. SGDY have higher rates of depression, anxiety and suicide than their heterosexual counterparts. The purpose of this study is to explore what may be distinct aspects of peer victimization of SGDY informed by sexual stigma. We focus on bullying that targets SGDY with messages to control, conceal and ultimately change their sexual orientation to heterosexual.
Methods
We used a qualitative grounded theory methodology. Participants were recruited using theoretical and purposive sampling. Eligibility criteria were having at least 3 years of experience working with or conducting research with SGDY. We conducted semi-structured individual interviews (45-60 minutes) with direct service providers, teachers and academics to explore knowledge and perspectives on bullying of SGDY. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and thematic analysis was conducted using initial and focused coding. Analysis by multiple coders, thematic consensus and peer-debriefing supported validity.
Results
Participants (n=17) ranged from 25 to 62 years of age and had diverse ethnic and sexual identities. Seven participants were cisgender female, nine cisgender male, and one transgender male. Overall, seven themes emerged that indicate content, contexts and mechanisms of bullying that promotes sexual prejudice against SGDY, as well as strategies of resistance. In particular, participants described the use of religion and religious rhetoric as a rationale for perpetuating harm against SGDY. Religion-based homophobia was pervasive in families, as well as in secular and faith-based educational institutions. Participants identified religious language that advocates rejection and discrimination against SMY, and that interprets “homosexuality” as “abnormal” and “abominable.” Culturally-specific homophobic constructs were described that construe same-sex attraction as changeable or “fixable”, and that promote sexual reorientation ‘therapy’—a practice deemed harmful by major U.S. professional mental health organizations—often through informal religious engagement. Participants also described the importance of engaging SGDY to transform places of worship into sites of support and resistance that are safe and inclusive for sexual minorities.
Conclusions and Implications
The pervasive use of religion and religious rhetoric to justify and enable victimization of SGDY may constitute a unique form of bullying, which we term “conversion bullying”: the inflicting of verbal, emotional or physical harm against SGDY based on the false premise that same-sex sexual orientation is unnatural and with the implicit or explicit goal of “changing” sexual orientation to heterosexual. This study illustrates many forms of religion-based justifications for sexual stigma, and difficulties in challenging these, as religious discourse permeates secular sociocultural discourses on sexuality. Social workers must reflexively examine and refrain from enacting their own sexual stigma to provide competent and ethical services to SGDY and their families. It is incumbent on the social work profession to challenge institutional-level practices and discourses that foster harm among SGDY, and to advocate for safe and inclusive spaces through collaboration with educational and religious institutions.