ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the framing of a “condition-category”—violence against gays and lesbians—as a particular type of issue. Gay- and lesbian-sponsored antiviolence projects across the nation also initiate and sustain responses to anti-gay and lesbian victimization that mirror the tactics employed in the women’s movement’s anti—violence against women campaigns to assist survivors of sexual assault. Organizations have combined documentation and victim assistance efforts by using their “homophobia hotlines” as both a vehicle for reporting anti-gay and -lesbian violence/victimization and providing victim assistance. The collective action frames being developed and institutionalized by the gay and lesbian movement’s antiviolence projects, especially those activities devoted to crisis intervention and assistance, imply that violence against gays and lesbians is a form of sexual terrorism born of compulsory heterosexuality and comparable to rape and other types of violence against women. Sexual terrorism employs a variety of means: rape, battery, incestuous abuse, sexual abuse of children, sexual harassment, pornography, prostitution and sexual slavery, and murder.
