Gender and Sexual Violence Issues - Term Paper Example

Gender and Sexual Violence The LGTB persons do face violence in the society, which may be executed either by the state through the law prescribing the fate for the victims or by individuals who ruefully engage in direct intimidation, assailment, or even thorough beating (Stotzer 173). These acts of violence and intimidation against these people induce both physical and psychological torture to the victims an event, which may even lead to suicide of the victim. In most of the western countries these groups have been legalized thus inducing violence over them is termed as a hate crime and exist most preferably among the religious activists or the extreme political persons. The issue has also been common in some Asian and African countries especially those, which are Islamic, dominated. They argue that violence against these people has an adverse psychological effect and can lead to one committing suicide. Introduction With the recent efforts to fight against inequalities, gender and sexual violence is a topic, which has drawn scholarly interest in the recent past. In fact, Ussher believes that the exposure of sex into rigors secular stare and scrutiny of the sexual body has drawn both scientific and legal intervention (380). So violence against gender may take different directions, it seems to be more inclined to the female gender. Paludi Michelle, in her publication, Feminism and Women's Rights Worldwide, defines gender violence as any act that will suggest in any way the convention, elimination, and discrimination one gender and that result to any form of physical, sexual, or psychological harm of the same. Actions that deem gender violence are rape, dowry violence, genital mutilation and other tradition practices that do not favor or are harmful to women. Women can also be intimidated at work or in educational institutions (Paludi 12). Women trafficking and forced prostitution are other forms of gender violence. Sexual violence on the other hand is the subjective experience a targeted person undergoes which is against his will. Sexual violence may take forms of rape, forced prostitution, or state-sanction violence against women. This sexual harassment based on gender has hindered or compromised the ability of women to rise to higher levels in the society or authority. Hate violence against LGBTQ people Hate and sexual violence against the lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender rose by more than thirteen per cent in the year 2010 alone. The report released by national coalition of anti-violence indicated that violence against persons tend to be more vicious as compared to other forms of bias-motivated crimes. These groups of minorities have records of mistreatment in the various regions of the world having violated of their rights through murder, kidnapping, assaulted, or made to undergo other forms of psychological torture (Nelson 169). Despite the reported cases, many of them go unreported because the victims do not actually trust the police or are afraid of reprisal because they fear their identity as having sexual behavior. However, public information campaigns should be introduced in the public oriented zones to counter the homophobia. Law enforcement by officials should also take its course and all people be exposed to equal and fair treatment inconsiderate of their sexual basis. Hate-motivated violence’s against the minorities with queer sexual behaviors have been a common phenomenon in the current society. These persons (the lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, and queer commonly known as LGBTQ) have been undergoing verbal attacks, sexual assailment, and discriminations in the work places. The intimate partners are being beaten and tortured, all because of hatred against this group (Ungar 41). The recent report by the Harvard school of public health affirmed that those with sexual abnormalities are two or more times likely to undergo abuse and their rights violated. The public also exhibited high probability of attacking and violating rights of these groups of minorities. Acts of hate, violence, and harassment to the sexual micros through stalking, vandalism, physical and sexual assault by the members of society can be in form of transphobia, biphobia, and homophobia (Kimmel 214) These reactions send a concrete message to the LGTBQ that they are unwanted in the society. Most of the members of LGTBQ community receive substantial bias since they belong to other marginalized groups in the axis of race, class, and immigration status. The hate-motivated acts of violence against the sexual micros have categories and are either verbal or physical attacks. As a result, scholars have come up with biological theories to provide exclusive explanation of these increasing gender and sexual violence (Ussher 380). These acts are not limited to hate crimes but also take into account the assault, vandalism, and homicides. The motives of the offenders have bias on the perception of identity for the target (Stotzer 176). The many acts of hate speech, and violence among the sexual minorities is not legal. However, due to neglect the victims have been undergoing serious and traumatic impacts due to torture and neglect by friends, families, and communities they live in. The sexual minorities are always leading lives of fear and unsettledness .Whenever they hear aggressive speech, it often reckons to them a possibility of violence escalating. Although hate violence against the LGBTQ takes many forms, which are characteristically common, the main message from the offenders seems to be justified by brutality. They believe that the sexual micros do not have the right to live free from violence or in the extreme cases do not have the right to live at all. The LGBTQ according to perception of many to exist outside acceptable social behaviors norms and thus they may use hate violence, harassment, or even murder to purposely eliminate them from the society (Perry 419). The common element among the offenders is that they send threat messages to not only the individual victim, but also the communities in which they live (Stotzer 172). The main weakness of the minority that has led them to being misused is because they are marginalized groups. In addition, they are unwilling to report violence acts against them because of fear and stigma as well as distrust of whether they will be taken serious or not. The assumption of performance masculinity and femininity provides the assumption of male proprietary rights. Further, it provides for the assumption that man has the right to have sex with a woman. As a result, Perry challenges one rapist perspective that men have right to rape since women are not made to say no (425). These cases of fear for of re-victimization are not founded and the police to document a significant number of cases of brutality and misconduct among these groups of sexual casualties. The most embarrassing thing about the violence against the homosexuals, lesbians, and transgender is that they have no voice on the law enforcement (Kimmel 217). For example, a case in Russia was that a gang raped a young woman after they had learned that she was a lesbian. The court heard the case and the offender found guilty of assailment hence convicted however, the homophobic motive had no consideration (NCAVP 4). Transgender people still face as many challenges as the other sexual minorities especially if they are living in a society where most of the gender is not binary. The United States has established three distinct methods for discerning the violence against the transgender in their entire lives. These methods are self-report surveys, assessment needs, hot line call through which transgender can record statement, and police report services. Data from these sources is analyzed in length and as well, the methodological issues from these data are extracted (Stewart 287). Out of the previous researches, the three sources indicate that violence against transgender people starts early in life. The conclusion is that transgender people are at risk for multiple types and incidences of violence. The impacted threat however persists for the rest of the live of the victim. A critical research amongst the school-going persons found that the lesbian, gay, bisexuals, and transgender youth who experience victimization was increasingly growing. The research found that this group of people had impaired health, mental unsettlement, depression and even some attempting to commit suicide. This was because of society torture and victimization because of their sexual orientation (Nelson 247). The continued violence motivated by hatred and prejudice of sexual orientation in higher learning levels has an intimidating effect on the daily living of the victims in the western countries specifically Europe and North America. The school heads and officials have been suggesting that these crimes represent significant portion to violent and hate crimes, with distinct character of serious physical violence to the individual victims. Victims, that is the lesbians, gays, bisexual, and transgender fall as susceptible to violence because they do not conform to stereotypes of gender identity (NCAVP 7). Conclusion As evidence in this paper, the international hate crimes against the lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender have become common in the current society. People have had exclusions in the society because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. The main reason attributed to this is that the rights of these people are yet to have well integration in the international human rights and the anti-discrimination bodies as well as mechanisms. The international bodies that prevent human rights and NGOs have not specifically focused on the rights of the LGBT persons (Nelson 252). The prevention of framework of bias-motivated violence against LGBT persons is however beginning to gain recognition and now lies within the jurisdictions of general human rights treaty bodies. Violence against the LGBT persons is real and exists in the current society. Hundreds of persons have had exposure to violence acts and discrimination because of sexual violence. The world agency bodies should, with immediate effect look on the matter and come up with effective resolutions. Works cited Bamforth, Nicholas and Richards, David. Patriarchal Religion, Sexuality, and Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Print. Gustavsson Nora. Violence and Social Injustice Against Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print. Kimmel Michael. Masculinity as homophobia: Fear, Shame, and Silence in the construction of Gender Identity. Web 1 May 2012. 213-219. Print. National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP). Hate Violence Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and HIV-Affected Communities in the United States in 2010. New York. Nelson Haley. Sexualized Violence against Lesbians. New York: Pro Bono Publico.2004. print. Paludi Michelle. Feminism and Women's Rights Worldwide. New York: ABC-CLIO, 2010. Print. Puar Jasbir. Terrorist Assemblages. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007. Print. Sloan Jane, Oyster Carol and Stange Mary. Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World. California: SAGE, 2011. Print. Stewart Chuck. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Lgbt Issues Worldwide. Middleton: ABC-CLIO, 2010. Print. Stotzer, Rebecca L. Violence against transgender people: A review of United States data. Aggression and Violence Behavior, 14 (2009) 170-179. Print. Ungar Mark, Bermanzohn sally and Worcester Kent. Violence and Politics. New York: Routledge, 2002. Print. Ussher, Jane. SEXUAL SCIENCE AND THE LAW: Regulating Sex-Reifying The Power Of The Heterosexual Man. 379-396. Print. Perry, Barbara. DOING GENDER AND DOING GENDER INAPPROPRIATELY: Violence Against Women, Gay Men, and Lesbians. 417-438. Print. Read More