ABSTRACT
The LGBTQ+ community suffers disproportionally high rates of violence and sexual victimization. Further, sex crime laws and offender registration laws discriminate against LGBTQ+ individuals and contribute to the criminalization of queer people. Part I of the following chapter provides a history of these laws, their impact on the LGBTQ+ community, and their contribution to the discrimination faced by the LGBTQ+ community in the criminal legal system and in society. Part II reviews cases that demonstrate the prevalence of sexual victimization and discrimination against LGBTQ+ persons. We examine how discrimination and sexual violence are endorsed through messaging and biases present in laws and the media. Although many discriminatory laws have been struck down, protective legal measures have been enacted, and accurate representations of LGBTQ+ individuals are increasingly present in the media, the harm caused by past legal and societal discrimination may contribute to the disproportionate prevalence of sexual violence and victimization against this community. Part II also examines how the experiences of Randall Menges, Gwen Araujo, Timothy Blancher, Paris Cameron, and Alunte Davis – LGBTQ+ persons affected by sex crimes, sexual victimization and/or sexual offender registration laws – have been portrayed in the media. This chapter also explores the impact of intersectionality related to how the law impacts individuals based on race, class, gender, and sexuality.
