Fear of Victimization among LGBQ, Non-Binary, and Transgender College and University Students in the United States

ABSTRACT

This study examines fear of victimization (FOV) among lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer (LGBQ), and (T)ransgender college and university students across the US. We expand the FOV literature by examining the relationship between fear and both gender and sexual identities across racial and ethnic lines among college and university students in the US. We find that being a transgender or non-binary (NB) student is significantly associated with FOV, as well as being an LGBQ student. In addition, Black trans/NB students and Black LGBQ non-trans students are both roughly 11 times more likely than their counterparts to report FOV. Being trans/NB matters; it is an independent identity from one’s sexuality, and it operates differently across race and ethnicity.

KEYWORDS:

• Fear of victimization
• LGBQT
• college population
• queer criminology
• race and ethnicity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. “Inclusive term for individuals who identify with non-normative genders and sexualities, including, but not limited to, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, asexual, pansexual, genderqueer, non-binary, etc.; used as an umbrella term for a community of people who do not identify with the gender and sexual binaries that can be used to replace the various iterations of LGBTQIA+ and be more inclusive; not always a label that various members of this community are comfortable with individually” (Rogers, 2020, p. xii).

2. We capitalize Black but not white citing the explanation offered by the Columbia Journalism Review (Laws, 2020) – that Black reflects (for many) a shared set of experiences in relation to identity. Additionally, the Associated Press (Bauder, 2020) decided not to capitalize white because they have “less shared history and culture” and doing so might “[risk] subtly conveying legitimacy” to white supremacist beliefs (Bauder, 2020; Berkhout & Richardson, 2020; Laws, 2020).

3. The opinions, findings, and conclusions presented/reported in this article/presentation are those of the author(s) and are in no way meant to represent the corporate opinions, views, or policies of the American College Health Association (ACHA). ACHA does not warrant nor assume any liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information presented in this article/presentation.

4. Variables were deleted listwise because the vast majority asked about demographic characteristics, experiences, or identities (e.g., age, GPA, enrollment status, year in school), which cannot be statistically replaced. The data were assessed for changes in distribution of the dependent variables as well as between the trans and non-trans samples and LGBQ and heterosexual samples. For each variable, the distributions of the samples remained the sample and no significant differences were found between those remaining in the sample and those deleted. Additional information about missingness and sample distributions are available upon request.

5. The study and labeling of sexual identity are ever evolving, and new labels and terminology continue to emerge. All the provided identities are distinct, and the list is still not fully inclusive. While each of these deserves empirical attention on its own, given our primary focus is on the distinction between sexuality and transgender identity, which far too often get clumped together, we have chosen to collapse these identities together for the present work. However, future research is warranted into the distinct and divergent experiences of those of various identities within the LGBQ community.

6. Specific coding for each control variable is available upon request.

7. Correlation matrices for the full, trans/NB, LGBQ, and cisgender heterosexual samples are available upon request.