Prevalence of Military Sexual Trauma and Sexual Orientation Discrimination Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Military Personnel: a Descriptive Study

Abstract

Despite the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue (DADT) and the update to the Transgender Policy, there remain concerns about the persistence of military sexual trauma (MST) and sexual orientation discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) service members. A sample of 253 participants (89 women, 164 men) completed an Internet-based survey that assessed the prevalence of sexual orientation discrimination (e.g., offensive speech, physical or discriminatory behaviors) and MST (e.g., sexual harassment and sexual assault). The survey was conducted between April 2012 and October 2013. Women and men reported similar levels of sexual orientation discrimination in the military. Participants reported experiencing more threats and intimation, vandalism, and physical assault outside of the military than inside the military (p < 0.05). Although the prevalence of MST (both sexual harassment and sexual assault) in the military was high among both genders, women were more likely to report experiences of sexual harassment compared to men (p < 0.05). Our findings demonstrate the prevalence of MST and sexual orientation discrimination among LGBT service members in the military and point to the need for strong accountability and oversight to protect sexual minority persons while they are serving their country.

Experiences of Sexual Harassment, Stalking, and Sexual Assault During Military Service Among LGBT and Non‐LGBT Service Members

“…Disparities in sexual and stalking victimization observed in the current study build on existing evidence suggesting that LGBT military personnel endure frequent occurrences of gender‐ or sexuality‐based discrimination and violence during service (American Psychological Association, 2009; DoD, 2017a; Gurung et al., 2018). The perpetrator hypothesis, a recent conceptual framework (Castro & Goldbach, 2018), can provide a useful tool for contextualizing these findings and identifying targets for intervention.…”

“…The rates of reporting an incident of sexual assault were low across the sample, which is consistent with prior research among veteran and active duty samples (Dardis, Reinhardt, Foynes, Medoff, & Street, 2018; DoD, 2017a; Mengeling, Booth, Torner, & Sadler, 2014) and did not vary significantly by sexual or gender identity. In prior work among LGBT and non‐LGBT service members, barriers to reporting sexual victimization have included beliefs that the incident was not important enough or that nothing would be done, feelings of discomfort with reporting, fear of reprisal or consequences, or wanting to resolve the issue personally (Dardis et al., 2018; DoD, 2017a; Gurung et al., 2018; Mengeling et al., 2014; Sadler et al., 2003). Taken together, these findings suggest substantial barriers to reporting sexual and stalking victimization experiences regardless of sexual or gender identity.…”

The health status of transgender and gender nonbinary adults in the United States

“…Findings from this study elicit the health effects stemming from such lived experiences, particularly for transgender adults who are also identify as a sexual minority person. Often, researchers examining the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals group all LGBT people together, compare LGB-to T-identified participants, or do not use measures to identify their transgender participants [65][66][67][68][69][70][71].…”

Military Sexual Trauma: An Update for Nurse Practitioners

“…1 At-risk populations include gender and sexual minorities, including women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons. 2 More than one-half of women in the military report exposure to MST, 1 and between 74% and 83% of LGBT service members report having experienced MST, 3 compared with approximately 5% of men. 1 Further, individuals who were exposed to combat are at elevated risk for MST, highlighting the potential for multifactorial, compounded trauma exposure and worse health outcomes.…”