What Gender-Based Violence Looks Like When You Are Queer, Trans, or Intersex: A 2025 Update

Lesbian, bisexual, and queer women are doubly marginalized online as a result of misogyny and homophobia. Trans people of all genders may experience even higher rates of abuse, and intersex people who are open about their sex characteristics are also attacked online. But in 2025, as in most years, the voices of LGBTIQ people are largely absent from the most visible elements of the “16 Days” global campaign. UN Women, to its credit, notes that “ migrant and racialized women, those with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ people” may experience more extreme forms of online abuse. But almost all UN campaign materials refer exclusively to violence against women and girls. 

Centering women and girls in discussions of gender-based violence makes good sense. But in principle, the discourse of “gender-based violence” ought to open up ample space to discuss the gendered norms and hierarchies that contribute to such violence, not only against women, but also against queer, trans, and intersex people of all genders. 

Beyond what LGBTIQ communities experience online, gender-based violence should be understood to include all homophobic and transphobic hate crimes, along with abuses such as  intersex genital mutilation and other medically unnecessary procedures that are forced on intersex infants and kids to make their bodies fit binary norms; forced and coercive conversion practices, which aim to force people to conform to cisgender, heterosexual norms; and forced marriage, which Outright has identified a mechanism for enforcing compulsory heterosexuality. 

Eradicating gender-based violence will require an understanding that gender-based violence is, at its root, a result of rigid gender binaries and norms, enforced through physical, emotional, and economic violence. It will require a decolonial approach that appreciates that these harmful gender norms do not stem from local “tradition” in large parts of the world – they are colonial impositions that were often foisted on communities through the criminalization and violent displacement of more fluid and dynamic gender identities and systems. This critical analysis of gender-based violence helps to connect the dots between violence against women and violence based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics. 

Legal and policy approaches to gender-based violence that are limited in scope to women and girls are likely to leave many queer, trans, and intersex survivors behind. As we commemorate the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, Outright calls on the UN and our partners in the feminist movement to maintain an expansive understanding of gender and gendered violence. Stakeholders should address violence against women and violence based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics through a holistic lens that interrogates root causes, including the enforcement of rigid gender binaries and norms. We remind our partners that the election of President Donald Trump in the United States has brought a reinvigorated drive to erase the concept of gender – along with copycat efforts in countries around the world – replacing terms like “gender-based violence” with more restrictive alternatives like “violence against women and children.” Multilateral institutions, non-governmental development partners, and others might be tempted to cave in and set gender aside, restricting their efforts to the somehow less controversial “women and girls.” That would be shortsighted.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, and queer people face peril in digital spaces and offline. As we raise our voices to stress that there is “no excuse for online abuse,” queer stories and lived realities should be part of the 16 Days, their poignant voices and urgent calls for justice amplified not only by LGBTIQ organizations, but by all who endeavor to eradicate gender-based violence.