Statistics Canada Article on Experiences of Victimization of Sexual Minorities

 A new article in the Statistics Canada publication Juristat shows that gay, lesbian, bisexual and other sexual minority people in Canada were almost three times more likely than heterosexual Canadians to report that they had been physically or sexually assaulted in the previous 12 months in 2018 and more than twice as likely to report having been violently victimized since the age of 15. 

Sexual minority Canadians were also more than twice as likely as heterosexual Canadians to experience inappropriate sexual behaviours in public, online or at work in the previous 12 months.

The article is entitled Experiences of violent victimization and unwanted sexual behaviours among gay, lesbian, bisexual and other sexual minority people, and the transgender population, in Canada, 2018.

Among the highlights:

• According to the 2018 Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces (SSPPS), an estimated 1 million people in Canada are sexual minorities—that is, they reported their sexual orientation as gay, lesbian, bisexual or a sexual orientation that is not heterosexual—representing 4% of the population of Canada 15 years of age and older.
• In addition, approximately 75,000 people, or 0.24% of the population of Canada aged 15 and older indicated on the SSPPS that their assigned sex at birth was different from their current gender, or that they were neither male nor female—in other words, that they are transgender. Those whose assigned sex at birth aligns with their gender are cisgender.
• Excluding violence committed by an intimate partner, sexual minority Canadians were more likely to have experienced physical or sexual assault both since age 15 and in the past 12 months than heterosexual Canadians. Violence targeting sexual minority Canadians was also more likely to result in injuries than violence committed against heterosexual Canadians. In addition, sexual minority Canadians were less likely to report their physical assaults to the police.
• Sexual minority Canadians were also more likely than heterosexual Canadians to report experiencing inappropriate behaviours in public (57% versus 22%), online (37% versus 15%) and at work (44% versus 22%) in the 12 months preceding the survey.
• When it came to their experiences of inappropriate behaviours while online, sexual minority Canadians were more likely to report that they knew the person who had targeted them. They were also more likely than heterosexual Canadians to have taken measures to protect themselves from harassment online within the past 12 months (38% versus 23%).
• Transgender Canadians were more likely to have experienced violence since age 15, and also more likely to experience inappropriate behaviours in public, online and at work than cisgender Canadians.
• Sexual minority Canadians were more than twice as likely as heterosexual Canadians to have used drugs or alcohol to cope with emotional abuse or physical violence that they experienced since age 15 (24% versus 10%).
• In general, when compared with heterosexual Canadians, those who were a sexual minority were more likely to engage in binge drinking (53% versus 44%), non-medicinal cannabis use (37% versus 15%), and non-prescribed drug use (10% versus 3%) in the 12 months preceding the SSPPS.
• No statistically significant difference was observed between transgender and cisgender Canadians when it came to engaging in binge drinking and non-medicinal cannabis use in the past 12 months. However, transgender Canadians were more likely than cisgender Canadians to have used drugs or alcohol to cope with abuse or violence experienced in their lifetimes.
• Overall, sexual minority Canadians were more likely than heterosexual Canadians to report that they considered their mental health to be poor or fair (32% versus 11%). They were also more likely to have seriously contemplated suicide in their lifetimes (40% versus 15%), and to have been diagnosed with a mood or anxiety disorder (41% versus 16%).