‘I didn’t want to be noticed’: discrimination and violence among LGBTQ + youth experiencing homelessness

Abstract

This qualitative study documents incidents of discrimination and violence among LGBTQ + youth experiencing homelessness along with their adaptation strategies. Using intersectionality theory, this analysis is based on individual interviews conducted with 17 LGBTQ + youth experiencing homelessness aged 17 to 25. According to their stories, LGBTQ + youth experienced various types of discrimination and violence in the context of homelessness. Youth report anticipating and experiencing physical and psychological violence from passersby in public spaces, causing them to hide from the gaze of others. They also report that police profiling of racialized youth and young women sex workers leads these youth to avoid confrontational interactions with the police. Some youth mention that landlords and employers discriminate against them based on their ethnicity and gender expression, requiring them to have contingency plans for housing and employment. Lastly, many LGBTQ + youths report hiding information about being bisexual, being trans or doing sex work to avoid prejudice and rejection from their intimate partners. The results show that heterosexist, cisgenderism, sexist and racist discrimination and violence amplify the social exclusion of LGBTQ + youth who are already marginalized due to their homelessness.

Keywords:

• Youth homelessness
• LGBTQ+
• violence
• discrimination
• intersectionality
• qualitative research

Disclosure statement

All the authors have no conflict of interest to disclose.

Notes

1 In Canada, bill C-36, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, received Royal Assent on November 6, 2014. Bill C-36 treats prostitution as a form of sexual exploitation that disproportionately impacts on women and girls. With this law, the media presented Canada as being in continuity with the so-called “Nordic model” of prostitution regulation, modeled on policies popularized in Sweden, Norway and Iceland (Kunimoto, 2018). This law prohibits the purchase of sexual services from minors and adults (being a client), advertising to provide sexual services, commercial businesses that provide sexual services, procuring offences, recruiting to sell sexual services, and trafficking in persons.

2 The term “whorephobia” is used to denote forms of hatred, disgust, discrimination, violence, aggressive behaviour and negative attitudes directed at individuals who engage in sex work (Sawicki et al., 2019).

Additional information

Funding

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (430-2015-00506).

Notes on contributors

Philippe-Benoit Côté

Philippe-Benoit Côté is a professor in the Department of Sexology at the Université du Québec à Montréal. His research interests include social inequality in sexual health; sex education among marginalized population; homelessness among youth, women, men, and LGBTQ + people.

Lolita Frésard

Lolita Frésard is a research assistant in the Department of Sexology at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

Martin Blais

Martin Blais is the chairholder of the Research Chair on in Sexual Diversity and Gender Plurality and a full professor in the Department of Sexology at the Université du Québec à Montréal. His research interests are in the development of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons; exposure to social biases, such as heterocisnormativity, and their impacts on psychosocial development; sexual diversity; sexual health; intimate relationships; and the sociology of sexuality and intimacy.