The Ecology of Anti-Gay Violence

Abstract

This article discusses how prejudice and violence directed at lesbians and gay men are unique and how they are similar to other forms of prejudice and violence in American culture. The article begins with a brief discussion of how children learn prejudice in general and speculates about the possible origins of anti-gay prejudice in particular. Then, violence in American society is discussed, and the concept of “ethnoviolence” is introduced to refer to violence motivated by a desire to do harm to an “other” who represents a group against which the attacker is prejudiced. The assumption that most anti-gay violence is perpetrated by young males is rejected as biased because it is based only on reported cases. The characteristics of the attacker often are not known and, where known, are likely to vary according to the site of the attack. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the psychological impact of ethnoviolence on victims (who are more traumatized than victims of other crime), on witnesses, and on researchers and service providers.