“I Didn’t Think I’d Be Supported”: LGBTQ Students’ Non-Reporting of Bias Incidents at Southeastern Colleges and Universities

Colleges and universities are complex spaces of both LGBTQ+ liberation and oppression. College students experience LGBTQ+ bias-motivated incidents of harassment, assault, or other violence. Previous researchers have found that these incidents are severely under-reported, which may be related to a range of factors, including campus policies, campus climates, and administrator incompetence. These campus characteristics are upheld through systems of anti-LGBTQ+ surveillance and oppression, including compulsory heterogenderism, which normalize anti-LGBTQ+ violence. In this study, we used a survey of 143 LGBTQ+ college students in the Southeastern U.S. to examine their experiences of violence on campus. Using queer theory, we analyzed student responses about bias-motivated incidents and whether they chose to report the incidents to campus or legal authorities via convergent mixed methods. In this analysis, LGBTQ+ students' decisions to report a bias incident are moderated by considerations of the significance of the incidents, unclear and prohibitive reporting options, and the risks associated with reporting. Additionally, students regularly minimized the seriousness of violence against themselves even when describing incidents that commonly meet college and university definitions of harassment and/or assault. This study shows LGBTQ+ students' experiences of bias-motivated violence and (non)reporting are complex and affected by many facets of college life. Therefore, colleges and universities looking to address violence on campus need to improve not only policy but also communication and other efforts that demonstrate students experiencing violence will be heard, supported, and affirmed.