A TCI Blog: LGBTQIA+ Communities are Underserved Populations

By: David Herrera, SLV CAC Family Advocate

As we enter into the summer season, we begin with the month of June, which is internationally celebrated as PRIDE month for LGBTQIA+ communities worldwide. And while many countries will celebrate the diversity of these communities with various events and parades throughout the world, many opposing communities will be protesting this month with notions of shame and hate. In a community of people that is so filled with concepts of justice, love, and acceptance, it is hard to grasp the idea that there are so many groups of opposing communities who seek to silence the pride of LGBTQIA+ people. Even though, the past 2 decades have shown an extreme shift towards a positive direction for the acceptance and celebration of this community; this month, Tu Casa Inc. recognizes that the LGBTQIA+ community still remains underserved, especially when it comes to sexual and physical violence.

As an ordained Christian minister in both the Assemblies of God denomination, as well as the Southern Baptist Convention, I was indoctrinated in a church based setting. I would argue that those who call themselves Christians are raised to believe in justice, love, and acceptance of all people. One of our key doctrines came from Jesus himself who proclaimed that the second greatest commandment of all of his followers was that they love their neighbors as much as they love themselves (Mark 12:31; Matt. 7:12, 19:18-19; Luke 10:27).[1] However, growing up we were taught something that was very contrary to this concept. We were taught that homosexuality was wrong in the eyes of God and that those who chose to live that “lifestyle” were sinners and were to be condemned to “hell”. (If you are reading this as a person of faith, you have to recognize that these are concepts we were taught not only to embrace but to teach others). It is sad to say now that for a majority of my life, I not only believed this concept, but also taught it to others. As someone who would grow up to be a pastor who worked with young children, teenagers, young adults and eventually pastored an entire church, I stood before many people of all ages, ethnic groups and backgrounds, teaching these types of misunderstandings.

It wasn't until I began to study for my Master of Divinity in my late 30’s that I came to the understanding that the use of the word homosexual was added to the Bible well after the original text was translated into English for ill reasons.[2] And while I am always up for a discussion (even debate) with any professing Christian about translations of both the Hebrew and Greek languages and the breakdown of the sacred texts till I'm blue in the face; the reality is, the things that I was raised to believe and even instructed to teach were centered purely around hatred for my fellow man. As to where when I was a child, if a homosexual man were to get sick with the HIV virus, we would celebrate the sickness as God's punishment on their souls for sin. Moreover, if a member of this community were to come to my church and state that they had faced some sort of sexual or physical violence in their relationship with a significant other, my attitude 15 years ago most likely would have been, “Well, that's what they get.” So then, if the LGBTQIA+ community is unable to be served within the religious institutions of the American Evangelical Church, one might assume that surely they can turn to the non-religious, non-biased, secular outreach community programs and law enforcement agencies spread throughout cities in America, right? Not so much.

While the LGBTQIA+ community has seen a massive shift in their acceptance throughout the US and the entire world, the current culture cannot forget the amazing neglect and discrimination that this community, especially homosexual men, have faced and are scarred by. Specifically in the late 1970’s and 1980’s, being a homosexual man was viewed as a scar to one’s reputation and was seen as a downfall of “core American values”. For example, in the US, the Court of Appeal ruled that there was no ‘fundamental right’ to be gay. In the UK, the Thatcher government created Section 28 of the Local Government Act, making it illegal for local authorities to support anything that might promote homosexual relationships as a viable alternative to heterosexual ‘family life’. All this coupled with the Catholic Churches continued attack on gays. In 1986 Pope John Paul II labelled homosexuals “evil” and ordered the Church to withdraw all support from gay Catholic organizations.[3]

This issue of discrimination in the 80’s was most poignantly displayed in the 1993 film “Philadelphia” which was based on the real life discrimination that Geoffrey Bowers faced as a gay man in corporate America. Bowers was an attorney who, in 1987, sued the law firm Baker McKenzie for wrongful dismissal in one of the first AIDS discrimination cases. Cain was an attorney for Hyatt Legal Services who was fired after his employer found out he had AIDS (notoriously referred to as a “gay” disease).[1] Most recently, in the Netflix series “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”, a very real problem with law enforcement in the 80’s was brought to light. While the series was not meant to be historically accurate to the entire Jeffrey Dahmer story, we are introduced to a situation that was very common for law enforcement in the 1980’s and 1990’s. In episode 2 of this mini-series, two police officers have to deal with Dahmer and Konerak Sinthasomphone (a victim of both physical and sexual violence). What needs to be dealt with as an instance of domestic abuse is dismissed as a drunken quarrel between two gay men. In recordings submitted in the court case, an officer leaving the scene radio’s into the station and let’s dispatch know that he and his partner will be off duty for a while: He responds "Ten-four. It'll be a minute, my partner's gonna get deloused at the station."[2] The concept of law enforcement having to be “deloused” after dealing with the gay community was brought to a broader light as a national problem in a 1991 article released by south Florida’s “Sun Sentinel” in which it was a well-documented practice for law enforcement to get “super cleansed” after they had any dealings with homosexual men involved in intimate partner relationships.[3]

It is difficult to imagine that 40 years later this is could still be an issue amongst the gay community and the LGBTQIA+ community as a whole, but as recent statistics will confirm, the problem still persists:

Highlights

During 2017 to 2020—

The rate of violent victimization of lesbian or gay persons (43.5 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 16 or older) was more than two times the rate for straight persons (19.0 per 1,000).
The rate of violent victimization against transgender persons (51.5 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 16 or older) was 2.5 times the rate among cisgender persons (20.5 per 1,000).
About 58% of violent victimizations of lesbian or gay persons were reported to police.
Domestic violence was eight times as high among bisexual persons (32.3 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 16 or older) and more than twice as high among lesbian or gay persons (10.3 per 1,000) as it was among straight persons (4.2 per 1,000).
Transgender students also report high levels of physical (26%) and sexual (23%) dating violence, compared to the rates of physical (15%) and sexual (16%) dating violence reported by their cisgender peers.

(Data produced by the HRC Foundation, last update November 2020)[7]

What is revealing about these statistics is that while the LGBTQIA+ community faces a higher percentage rate of abuse in intimate partner relationships than heterosexuals, they are still afraid to report to police and other entities due to the fact that they may not be believed, or shown dignity as a human being simply because of their gender or sexual preference. In addition, discrimination in health care settings endangers LGBTQIA+ people’s lives through delays or denials of medically necessary care. For example, after one patient with HIV disclosed to a hospital that he had sex with other men, the hospital staff refused to provide his HIV medication. In another case, a transgender teenager who was admitted to a hospital for suicidal ideation and self-inflicted injuries was repeatedly misgendered and then discharged early by hospital staff. He later committed suicide.[8]

So what does a person from the LGBTQIA+ community do when they cannot turn to religious institutions who preach love and acceptance, or secular institutions who promote non-discriminatory services? The work truly does rest among friends and family of this community to encourage community based programs to ensure that they are promoting their organizations as LGBTQIA+ friendly. It is the job of these friends and family too encourage their religious institutions to truly dive into the core of their religious text and ask themselves how the trajectory of the Bible has changed over centuries.[9] Friends and families of this underserved community need to be a support to their LGBTQIA+ friends who have experienced sexual and physical violence by going with them to law enforcement and driving them to these community based programs to get the assistance that they need. Friends and family members must become the voice to the voiceless of the underserved LGBTQIA+ community.

This month, and every day, Tu Casa Inc. stands with the underserved people within the LGBTQIA+ community and offers resources with an open hand. We believe that sexual and physical violence discriminates against no color of skin, no gender identity, and no sexual orientation. Sexual and physical violence knows no boundaries and we are here to serve those who have been victims of abuse with open arms. We believe all victims first, and are ready to assist them no matter what their cultural, financial or sexual background is. If you know someone from the LGBTQIA+ community that has faced sexual or physical violence, be their voice and encourage them to reach out for help. Be the advocate that drives them to that community based center and demand non-discriminatory services. Be the one who will find religious institutions that are LGBTQIA+ friendly (yes, they exist). Be the light that shows our beloved LGBTQIA+ community that they deserve to be heard, served, and restored.