Abstract

This is an exploratory chapter exploring how the victimisation of LGBTQ+ students by sexual violence and harassment is rendered invisible through both research methodologies and policy. We suggest that there is a public story about sexual violence and harassment targeting students that renders this a problem for heterosexual women students. Research methodologies facilitate the construction of this public story with research design that does not ask about the sexuality or transgender identities of participants or perpetrators and/or with research sampling that, for example, focuses on the women students. The Universities UK policy documents considering Changing the Culture (2016, 2019) also reinforce/construct this public story by making distinctions between violence against women (2016) or gender-based violence (2019) as problems for women students and hate incidents/crime and homo/bi/transphobic harassment as the problem facing LGBT students. We consider the findings from Project Emerald, a survey conducted at North Facing University in 2016 that show, along with studies in the United States, that when included and asked about sexual violence and harassment, LGBTQ+ students were more likely to report victimisation than their heterosexual counterparts. Finally, we consider some suggestions for how the public story might be changed across the Higher Education sector.