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Sexual Violence Against Transpeople

Experiences of childhood sexual abuse, rape, sexual assault, and domestic violence were not generally addressed in literature discussing sexuality. Unique among researchers I read, Devor (1997) specifically sought data about sexual abuse and assault, and gathered plenty of it. From that sample of FTMs, 20% had been sexually abused as children, and 6% had been sexually assaulted at an older age. Devor did not, however, make any comment on how these experiences might have impact participants' sexual lives.

Sexuality cannot be fully understood, however, without attention to nonconsensual and violent experiences of sexuality and to violence within sexual relationships, which may impact individuals' sexual lives greatly and in myriad ways. Although there is little research on these topics, it is known that transpeople suffer disproportionately high rates of victimization from many forms of violence, and this includes sexual violence and domestic violence; one preliminary study of trans and intersex people found that "50% of respondents had been raped or assaulted by a romantic partner" (Courvant and Cook-Daniels, 1998). Even if this alarmingly high number is not representative, transpeople are certainly sharply aware of the possibility of violence from sexual or romantic partners, and this is often cited as one reason for concealing one's transgender history and genitals in sexual encounters (though doing so may carry its own risks in an individuals trans status is disclosed or otherwise discovered later, as in the tragic 2002 murder of Gwen Araujo). The American Boyz organization studied sexual violence among female-born transpeople and found that "incidents of sexual assault, rape, and incest, correspond with estimates for the female population at large, which suggests that gender appearance may influence how the sexual abuse manifests, but does not seem to serve as a trigger for provoking sexual abuse" (cited in Courvant 1997). Transwomen probably experience victimization more frequently than transmen, at least once they begin to live in their chosen gender full-time (NCAVP 2001), and considerably more than for biological males in general.

Sexual assault against transpeople, often a hate crime specifically motivated by transgender status and specifically aimed at gender-transgressive sexual anatomy, may heighten survivors' body or body-part dysphoria, especially for FTMs who have a "female" role forced on them through rape (as dramatized in Boys Don't Cry, the harrowing film biography of the Brandon Teena). Pre- or non-operative transwomen may also experience sexual assault directed at their genitals, as in the case reported by Diana Courvant of a transsexual woman whose female abuser took advantage of the transwoman's involuntary, fear-induced erections to rape her (Courvant 1997), but the exact prevalence of such crimes is not known, and transwomen are probably more likely to be sexually assaulted as women bymen (Witten & Eyler 1999, cited in Lev & Lev 1999).

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Part II: My Study

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