Supporting LGBT+ People Experiencing Hate: Perspectives from LGBT+ Youth and Community Workers

James Pickles

doi:10.1177/13607804211015817

Abstract

Based on data taken from lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) youth and community workers, this article highlights the occupational stressors experienced by LGBT+ professionals who provide emotional support to service users and theorises the potential for vicarious victimisation to occur as a result. Research suggests that the emotional harms of ‘hate’ can indirectly victimise those with a shared identity as the primary victim, through emotional contagion. However, little research has been carried out on those who support victims of hate. I theorise that vicarious victimisation may occur where an individual, who shares the primary victim’s identity, takes on their experiences through a therapeutic relationship as a negative consequence of the emotional labour performed.

Highlights

This article emerges from a hate crime project that explored lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) experiences of ‘hate’ in the North East of England
Using the case of LGBT+ individuals employed as voluntary sector youth and community workers, I examine the emotional tolls placed on service workers as a consequence of performing emotional labour while supporting service users who have experienced identity-based violence
The three key areas of data discussed in this article are as follows: emotional labour and over-identification, coping with occupational stressors, and the potential for vicarious victimisation and trauma

Summary

Introduction

This article emerges from a hate crime project that explored lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) experiences of ‘hate’ in the North East of England. The project explored anti-LGBT+ hate across three community sectors: voluntary (youth and community users and workers), education, and the police. This article explores the emotional burdens of working with victims of hate and seeks to develop a criminological understanding of the potential victimisation process one may vicariously experience when supporting an individual who has been directly victimised because of their identity (identity-based violence) while sharing that identity. Using the case of LGBT+ individuals employed as voluntary sector youth and community workers, I examine the emotional tolls placed on service workers as a consequence of performing emotional labour while supporting service users who have experienced identity-based violence. Hate crimes are acts made illegal under criminal legislation, such as violence against the person, which are aggravated by hostility towards a personal identity or ‘characteristic’. Hate incidents are targeted acts that do not meet the criminal threshold but are aggravated, by hostility towards a personal characteristic (Clayton et al, 2016; Crown Prosecution Service, 2012)

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Conclusion