lesbian women, bisexual and queer (LBQ+) face forms of violence and discrimination that traditional protection frameworks have not fully recognized.
LBQ+ women's access to their rights continues to be conditioned by patriarchal institutions, Violence operates as an instrument to discipline those who challenge gender norms and statistical under-reporting makes this violence invisible and conditions public policy responses..
He 29 April 2026 the SOGI Independent Expert of the United Nations published a new thematic report on violence and discrimination against lesbian women, bisexual and queerin the world. Below we share the central reflections of this document.
International human rights law protects LBQ+ women through guarantees of equality and non-discrimination; bodily autonomy; family life; right to health, to the property; the inheritance; the work; access to justice, to a life free of violence, among other. Nevertheless, The lack of information about their situation significantly limits the formulation of legislative provisions and public policies that, from an intersectional approach, should focus on their protection.
Historically, protection mechanisms aimed at women have focused on heterosexual family structures, while the regulatory frameworks related to LGBTI+ people have prioritized the experiences of men, leaving LBQ+ women unprotected.
This lack of recognition has favored the reproduction of violence and discrimination faced by LBQ+ women in different contexts around the world.. Although its manifestations vary, These respond to shared structural patterns: The exercise of their rights is conditioned by patriarchal institutions and their access to public space usually depends on their adaptation to gender norms.. Those who defy these expectations expose themselves to insults., digital harassment, physical attacks and sexual violence. In addition, The lack of institutional recognition of this violence makes it difficult to produce information about its realities and prevents the design of appropriate public responses..
First of all, The Independent Expert points out that there is a conditional access to rights. That is to say, that in many global contexts, women's access to rights and resources is conditioned by the existence of a husband, a male couple or male-headed household. This dependency may be expressly provided for in marriage laws., affiliation and ownership, or reproduce through administrative procedures and services that presuppose their heterosexuality.
For example, regarding access to housing, There have been reported cases of lesbian couples who were evicted from their residence and were not allowed to remove their belongings once their sexual orientation was made public.. In addition, in contexts where same-sex relationships are not legally recognized, LBQ+ women find it impossible to purchase property with their partner, enter into joint contracts or have their rental rights recognized.
And when they are unfortunately murdered or die, their partners face serious obstacles in criminal investigations and in the processes to recover their remains. These institutional barriers prevent the people closest to the victims from accessing effective reparation..
In the field of health, There is a systematic denial of certain medical exams and procedures to LBQ+ women, under the argument that they do not have sexual relations with men. This has resulted in a disproportionately high number of LBQ+ women pending cervical cancer screening., breast and colorectal. In the case of trans women (due to invasive practices, psychological evaluations and bureaucratic or degrading requirements to access gender-affirming treatments) These have resorted to unregulated interventions, such as the use of industrial silicone or other procedures in risky conditions, with serious consequences for your health.
In second place, the assumption of unpaid care tasks within the family nucleus due to “not having a family of my own”, employment discrimination, lack of own income, political underrepresentation and media discourses that present LBQ+ women as a threat to family or children, restrict the right of these women to public life.
LBQ+ women who work in care sectors, like teaching or health, They may face special scrutiny and be accused of harming the reputation of the institution. Women with masculine appearance, trans or gender non-binary are disproportionately concentrated in informal jobs, precarious and poorly paid, without contracts or social protection. This precariousness reinforces family dependence on the family of origin and reduces the ability to reject forced marriages..
In the political sphere, LBQ+ women continue to be underrepresented at all levels of government. Although there are cases of lesbian and trans women elected to public office, they are still exceptional.
Hostility intensifies when a candidate or official is visible, especially in contexts where high-level authorities present LGBTI+ people as a national threat. According to the Independent Expert, The full materialization of gender equality in the State's decision-making spaces could take around 130 years, a delay that affects LBQ+ women even more.
On the other hand, in the media, Bisexual and queer women are often represented as unstable, dangerous or morally questionable. Accusations that accuse them of “recruiting” young people, corrupting children or destroying families serve to deny them legitimacy as mothers, teachers and caregivers.
These stigmatizing narratives have translated into regressive public policies, such as the elimination of comprehensive sexual education. In hostile educational contexts, LBQ+ girls are pushed to drop out of school, which perpetuates cycles of economic precariousness and social exclusion.
In third place, the Independent Expert identifies violence as an instrument of discipline intended to enforce compliance with gender norms that LBQ+ women challenge. This mechanism operates in different social areas.
In some of the homes that do not recognize the gender identity or sexual orientation of their daughters, they resort to threats, lockdown, food deprivation, physical attacks and sexual violence to discipline or “correct” their sexual orientation.
One of its most extreme expressions is corrective sexual rape., used to forcibly impose heterosexuality and preserve supposed family honor.
In public space, Attacks are usually triggered after displays of public affection between women (how to go hand in hand, hug or kiss), for having a masculine appearance or for being perceived as lesbian or trans.
Acts of verbal harassment are reported, collective intimidation, threats of sexual violence, physical attacks and even murders. Gender expression is a central factor: security depends on compliance with normative femininity. The most frequent response of the police to this violence is not to record it, thus perpetuating a message of impunity.
In addition to this complicit role, security forces are often accused of committing arbitrary arrests and various forms of physical and sexual violence against LBQ+ women. traffic controls, Border posts and detention centers are especially risky spaces for women with masculine appearance, trans lesbians and non-binary gender people. In detention centers, cell assignment based on sex registered at birth exposes LBQ+ women to new forms of violence, including physical attacks, torture and HIV tests carried out without their consent.
Finally, Violence against LBQ+ women is rarely adequately recorded in official systems. Many statistical systems do not incorporate sexual orientation variables, gender identity and expression. Consequently, the homicides, sexual assaults and violence are often misclassified, generating an under-record that makes the dimension of this violence invisible. Lesbian or bisexual women are usually registered as heterosexual and trans women according to the sex assigned at birth.
This statistical invisibility prevents identifying specific patterns of violence and, consequently, conditions public policy responses. What has been described as a “systematic distortion” of the available data leads to the mistaken assumption that LBQ+ women face lower levels of risk than other groups of women or LGBTI+ people.
As initially noted, the fragmented approach of protection frameworks against violence and discrimination (on the one hand, the one aimed at women, focused on the experiences of cisgender women, and on the other, that of LGBTI+ people, focused primarily on the male homosexual experience) contributes to generating gaps in both data and public policy responses. In this same sense, the division that is made between public violence (State – public space) and private (family), in law and in practice, contributes to a considerable number of cases going unreported, especially when it comes to corrective violence.
Guaranteeing the rights of LBQ+ women requires overcoming the fragmentation between the frameworks for protecting the rights of women and LGBTI+ people, and address the structural patterns that sustain violence and discrimination against them. This demands actions based on evidence and an intersectional approach that ensures comprehensive responses..
From the Network of LGBTI+ Litigants of the Americas we will continue to articulate and strengthen the work that our members are already carrying out to document this violence., promote litigation and advocacy strategies to prevent them, sanction them and demand state responses that guarantee LBQ+ women the full exercise of their rights in equality and dignity.
Therefore, we share the report that we sent to the United Nations Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, as a regional contribution to this process.
