‘Intimidating and exclusionary’ or ‘inclusive and approachable’: Exploring how the typical script of sexual violence informs sexual and gender minorities’ perceptions of mainstream sexual violence support services in the United Kingdom

Researchers in the field of LGBTQ+ violence and abuse have identified a range of barriers preventing LGBTQ+ victim-survivors from accessing mainstream sexual violence support services. Many of these barriers are thought to result from the ‘typical script’ of sexual violence, which positions cisgender-heterosexual men as perpetrators and cisgender-heterosexual women as victims. This script is pervasive and often silences queer experiences of sexual violence in both academic and public discourse. However, the majority of research treats the LGBTQ+ community as a homogeneous group, and in doing so, portrays the typical script as inherently restrictive. Drawing on findings from a doctoral research project centring sexual minorities marginalised by their gender, this article demonstrates that a victim-survivor’s proximity to the typical script may shape their perceptions of mainstream support services in varied ways. For some, the script can be navigated or extended, but for others, it produces exclusion and potential marginalisation. These findings highlight the uneven accessibility of mainstream services and underscore the need for further empirically grounded research that attends to distinct groups within the LGBTQ+ community, ensuring that both theory and practice are informed by the voices and experiences of victim-survivors.