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Campus Advocacy Resources & Education

LGBTQ+ Survivors

CARE provides confidential advocacy, support, and related referrals for LGBTQ+ students, staff, faculty, and alumni impacted by sexual assault, dating/domestic violence, and stalking.

CARE recognizes that there is not one resource or path toward healing that will best serve all members of a community. The LGBTQ+ community is no different. CARE takes an active role in recognizing the assumptions that can be made on a daily basis regarding one’s sexual orientation or gender, and allows for the client to self-identify in all of their identities. 

LGBTQ+ survivors may feel that institutions designed to help them are inaccessible due to past experiences of homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia from police, courts, medical providers, and even campus resources. CARE will honor any survivor’s wishes to not report to systems or offices that feel unsafe. CARE will work with the survivor to create the best path for them and their individual healing.

The Importance of Location

CARE has two locations one in the Student Resource Building (SRB), inside the Women’s Center, and the other in the Gaucho Support Center in Isla Vista, near Embarcadero Hall. Although the location in the SRB is open to and welcoming of people of all genders as well as people who do not identify with any gender, CARE understands that the location within the Women’s Center might not feel the most supportive for those who do not identify as women. If this is the case for you, CARE wants you to feel comfortable and empowered to directly ask for your appointment to be at the Gaucho Support Center in Isla Vista to help ensure that your experience with CARE is as comfortable and affirming as it can be.

What's different about interpersonal violence for the LGBTQ+ community?

While many aspects of abuse within LGBTQ relationships are similar to those experienced by heterosexual survivors, there are some key differences in the violence enacted against them. Perpetrators often exert power and control in specific ways based on the survivor’s identity and community dynamics. Some forms of abuse an LGBTQ+ survivor may experience include: 

  • “Outing” or threatening to “out” a partner’s identity to their family, friends, or others where this disclosure may cause harm to the partner’s access to support systems or resources 
  • Telling the survivor that the abusive behavior is a “normal” part of LGBTQ relationships 
  • Telling the survivor that what they are experiencing cannot be dating/domestic violence because it’s between LGBTQ people (using the misperception in our society that abuse only happens in heterosexual couples, by a man against a woman) 
  • Portraying the violence as mutual and even consensual (ie: as a sign of desired domination) 
  • Sabotaging a partner’s hormone treatments, or forcing them to medically transition 
  • Denying a partner’s identity and telling them they are just confused 
  • Using their own experiences of oppression or past relationship abuse as a tool to deny the current abusive behaviors (ie “you know how much I have been through… I would never do that to you”)

CARE's Partnership with the RCSGD

CARE works closely with the Resource Gender for Sexual and Gender Diversity (RCSGD) and participates in continuing education to continuously improve our services and be as identity-affirming and supportive as we can be. CARE understands that experiences of interpersonal violence can feel isolating or lead to feeling unsafe, particularly when the survivor and perpetrator of the violence are both in the same community, social circle, or student organizations. CARE is here to help survivors navigate these circumstances as well.

Sexual Identity and Survivorship

CARE advocates understand that the exploration of one’s identity in relation to gender, sexuality, and self is a complex process that can become even more complicated when acts of violence occur during the same time in one’s life. A CARE advocate can talk with you about these changes in identity exploration and how the violence you experienced might have impacted your sense of self. CARE helps survivors connect with counseling services when desired, through counselors at CAPS (Counseling & Psychological Services) and in the community, to help navigate both concerns, which can be so closely tied.

Confidentiality

All faculty and staff, who are not confidential, are required to report all students’ disclosures of sexual violence, dating/domestic violence, and/or stalking to the Title IX office to ensure consistent student services and Title IX policy compliance. A CARE advocate can discuss any student’s concerns one-on-one, without sharing the student’s name, identifying information, or any other details about their visit with CARE to other campus offices – your professors, coaches, RA, RCSGD center staff members, or your peers will not be notified that you have visited CARE, unless you explicitly request CARE’s assistance in working with them. The Title IX office also works to protect students against cases of discrimination against LGBTQ people, CARE and the RCSGD are locations were a survivor can go to, in order to find support and accompaniment throughout these Title IX processes as well.

Making an Appointment with a CARE Advocate

To schedule a non-urgent appointment with a CARE Advocate, please follow this link to our appointment request . 

To speak with a confidential advocate immediately, please call our 24/7 CARE advocacy line at (805) 893-4613. If you have an emergency or feel that you may be in immediate danger, please call 911. 

If you have experienced a sexual assault within the last five days, please visit the Medical information under the “How We Help - Advocacy” tab above or call CARE at 805-893-4613 to learn about the time-sensitive option to seek a free, confidential forensic medical exam.

CARE Recognizes...


CARE recognizes that each individual may hold many of the different identities that our Communities we CARE for pages address. For more information on another identity please click here to be brought back to the Communities we CARE for homepage.