Lateral Gender-Based Violence in 2SLGBTQ+ Communities: The Stifling of Queer Joy Through Intersectional Oppression, “Pitiful” Sexuality Education, and Media (Mis)Representation

There is a gap in the field of gender-based violence concerning lateral violence within 2SLGBTQ+ communities. This paper helps fill that gap by offering participants' narratives from The Queer Sexual Joy Project, which engaged 100 2SLGBTQ+ youth from Canada and the US, ages 18-35, in focus groups, participatory visual arts-based research, one-on-one interviews, and surveys. The study provides insight into how lateral violence is fueled and expressed through overlapping and intersecting systems of oppression, including fatphobia, transphobia, sexism and misogyny, racism, and ableism. Participants' experiences also highlighted that while lateral violence reduces the potentialities of queer sexual joy, this violence is catalyzed and reproduced through troubling depictions of 2SLGBTQ+ communities in popular media and sexuality education. The paper calls for further research on lateral violence and for increased and diverse representation of 2SLGBTQ+ communities in media and education to help address the disproportionately high rates of gender-based violence in these communities.