Walk A Mile - YOUR Style
YOUR Walk. YOUR People. YOUR Support. YOUR Impact.
- Gather your family, friends, coworkers, and employees and walk in the community, decked out in pink, to end gender-based violence in Niagara.
- Register your walk on a “virtual” map.
- Teams are encouraged to help spread awareness about gender-based violence and compete for the best pink-decorated house/business in October.
Event Details
- Saturday October 16, 2021
- A virtual community walk
- 11:30 am
- Opening ceremonies via Facebook Live - 12:00 pm
- Teams take to the streets to Walk a Mile - 1:00 pm
- Closing ceremonies via Facebook Live
You’re Not Alone
Too often, people who are being abused think they are alone or that they deserve it. Neither of these is true. Presented here are statistics of intimate partner and gender-based violence experienced by GSD community members.
What we know about all of the data on GSD people and communities, as well as data on intimate partner and gender-based violence, is that the data is only as good as what’s reported. There are myriad reasons why, even on anonymous surveys, people will choose not to report, including distrust in the data collection, stigma, fear, and other factors that cause concern for one’s safety and privacy.
- Excluding violence committed by an intimate partner, sexual minority Canadians were more likely to have experienced physical or sexual assault both since age 15 and in the past 12 months than heterosexual Canadians. Violence targeting sexual minority Canadians was also more likely to result in injuries than violence committed against heterosexual Canadians. In addition, sexual minority Canadians were less likely to report their physical assaults to the police.
- Sexual minority Canadians were also more likely than heterosexual Canadians to report experiencing inappropriate behaviours in public (57% versus 22%), online (37% versus 15%) and at work (44% versus 22%) in the 12 months preceding the survey.
- Transgender Canadians were more likely to have experienced violence since age 15, and also more likely to experience inappropriate behaviours in public, online and at work than cisgender Canadians.
- According to the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces (SSPPS), sexual minority women were much more likely to experience all forms of intimate partner violence than heterosexual women in Canada. Overall, two-thirds (67%) of sexual minority women who had ever been in an intimate partner relationship had experienced at least one type of IPV since the age of 15. This was significantly higher than the more than four in ten (44%) heterosexual women who reported similar experiences of abuse.
- When it came to the specific types of IPV, there were some differences in the experiences of bisexual and lesbian or gay women. In particular, bisexual women (34%) were three times more likely to have been sexually assaulted by an intimate partner in their lifetime than heterosexual women (11%). Meanwhile, the prevalence was similar between lesbian or gay women (12%) and heterosexual women.
- Almost half of bisexual women (48%) and more than one-third (35%) of lesbian or gay women had been physically assaulted, and two-thirds (67%) of bisexual women and three in five (59%) lesbian or gay women had been psychologically abused by an intimate partner since age 15. These proportions were significantly higher than what was experienced by heterosexual women, 23% of whom had been physically assaulted and 42% had been psychologically abused in their lifetime by an intimate partner.
- Sexual minority women were more than two times more likely than heterosexual women to experience the majority of individual IPV behaviours measured through the SSPPS. However, sexual minority women were three times more likely to experience two behaviours in particular: a partner making them perform sex acts that they did not want to perform (24% for sexual minority women versus 8% for heterosexual women), and a partner confining or locking them in a room or other space (10% versus 3%), both among the more severe types of abuse measured.
A national survey of 667 Trans women by Trans PULSE Canada in 2019 found that:
- 3 in 5 Trans women experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) since the age of 16
- Experiences of IPV included:
- 56% of Trans women had a partner that insulted, swore, shouted, or yelled at them;
- 29% of Trans women had a partner push, shove, shake, or pin them down;
- 24% of Trans women were threatened with harm by a partner; and
- 33% of Trans women were forced to engage in sexual activity they did not want to.
- Trans women face barriers accessing services due to gender biases and cisnormativity.
- Cisnormativity can be present in funding structures, organizational policies and programming, and amongst staff and residents.
- In addition to cisnormativity, Trans women come from diverse social locations and may face compounded oppressions due to racism, colonialism, ableism, and further forms of violence.
- Cisnormativity is the assumption that all human beings have a gender identity that matches the sex they were assigned at birth. This assumption results in the erasure of Trans individual's experiences and needs, in addition to propping up a system of discrimination and violence against Trans people.
Fundamentals for service providers to support Trans women:
- Be mindful of gender biases and learn more about Transmisogyny
- Participate in ongoing anti-oppression and anti-racism education
- Develop policies and protocols that prevent and address violence and discrimination against Trans women
- Create safe spaces (such as dedicated emergency housing) and peer-led programs by and for Trans women
- Foster partnerships with organizations serving Trans women (such as Trans-led organizations and 2SLGBTQ+ organizations)