andlostinmeaning reblogged
navyasarchive-deactivated201905
tw: rape, sexual assault, sexual violence
This article is going to be difficult to read, but if you can, I encourage you to. It’s by a bisexual woman who was raped and assaulted by her then girlfriend, who believed that she was going to leave her for a man.
I and other bi women focus primarily on bi women being raped, abused, or assaulted by male partners, but bi women are sometimes abused and assaulted by female partners as well, and in both cases it’s because the rapist/assaulter views their bi female partner as suspicious, adulterous, or disloyal.
Of course most of bi women’s perpetrators are cishet men, but other people are capable of being violent toward us as well, and this is something that so many of us are afraid to talk about. Yet we can’t ignore that things like this happen sometimes, and we need to know what to do to help LGBT people who’ve survived rape or abuse in a same-gender intimate relationship.
We have to talk about rape and abuse in same-gender relationships now more than ever.
The bi woman then goes on to describe that domestic violence shelters, therapists, and counselors were biphobic toward her and interrogated her sexual history and asked her invasive questions, which goes to show why it’s so hard for bi women who’ve experienced violence to get help.
cripplepunkrock
I have experience with this, too. I was turned away from a lot of rape recovery resources because my first rapist was female, and they didn’t consider it rape if it didn’t involve a penis/penis-vagina contact. I was told it was just sexual harassment, which while that’s serious too, wasn’t what I had faced.
cripples-r-us-swag
Holy shit Im so sorry :(
I don’t want to step on this post because I’m not bi but I have some experience because I was sexually assaulted in college by a woman with a sex toy at a party. No one considered it rape because it was woman on woman. My assaulter worked for the women’s center on campus and was a member of the feminist club. I was ostracized by the resources that were supposed to be there to help victims partially because my assaulter was in with the group but mainly because it was female on female. I tried so many assault resources online too and none were directed for same sex couples or same sex assault. I was ostracized by my friends as well because they didn’t believe it because she was a woman.
Support all victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. Women can be perpetrators or victims. Men can be perpetrators or victims. Support LGBT victims. Minority groups are often more at risk for violence like assault but resources tend to be more limited for minorities. This needs to change.