Does #Metoo Include #Ustoo? Notes on Depression, Violence and Intersectionality in the Lives of Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans* People

Background and Purpose: In the era of #MeToo, people are aware of the frequency with which women are harassed, assaulted and abused. Yet, #MeToo activism is situated primarily within a White, cisgender, heterosexual context, with less attention to parallel experiences for others who identify as lesbian or bisexual women, or trans people. This paper raises questions about the space for #UsToo in the #MeToo agenda, by exploring the narratives of sexual and gender minority women/people in Ontario, Canada.

Methods: This paper is based on a secondary analysis of data derived from 24 semi-structured interviews with people self-identifying within the LGBTQ spectrum and endorsing experiences of depression within the previous 12 months. The interviews asked participants to share their understandings of how depression and help-seeking were linked to other experiences in their lives. Data were analyzed with content and thematic analysis on the Dedoose® platform, using a coding guide based on Iris Young’s (1990) theoretical framework of the Five Faces of Oppression.

Results: Participants described lives in which violence was pervasive and recurrent. Physical and sexual assaults and abuse, threats, coercion, threatening work and home environments, harassment and emotional abuse were named regularly as progenitors to fear and depression from childhood through to adulthood. Although participants made links between being targets of violence and being sexual and/or gender minority identified, they noted that intersecting identities, and associated privilege or marginalization, could increase or mitigate their exposure to risk and harm. Participants reflected on past violence with meaning-making that fueled empowerment and activism.

Conclusions and Implications: Structural violence manifesting in dangerous work and home environments, and exposure to interpersonal violence over the life course contributed to depression and distress for the people we interviewed. Social work with sexual and gender minority people should take into account the possibility of past and current exposure to violence and the need to find meanings and responses that are empowering. Further, anti-violence activism like the #MeToo movement can increase awareness of abuse, assault and harassment, but these interviews indicate that inclusive #UsToo advocacy will surface intersecting privilege and marginalization that increase or decrease exposure to violence, and increase or decrease access to platforms to demand social change.