What is intersectionality?

Intersectionality is a way of understanding how different aspects of a person’s identity, like race, gender, sexuality, class, ability, or immigration status, overlap and combine to affect how they experience the world. The term was coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 to describe how systems of oppression (like racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and classism) intersect.

For example, Black women experience both racism and sexism at the same time, often in ways that neither white women nor Black men do. Queer people of color experience the world differently than queer white people because they are more likely to experience racism and queerphobia. 

Why Intersectionality Matters

Understanding intersectionality matters because it:

• Reveals who is most at risk. Marginalized groups often experience multiple forms of violence and exclusion, especially when their identities intersect (e.g., LGBTQ+ people of color facing online hate or police violence).
   

• Exposes gaps in policy and support. Systems built for “women” or “immigrants” often may lack support for immigrant women, for example, if they don’t account for both immigration and gender together.
   

• Challenges one-size-fits-all solutions. We can’t fix gender inequality without addressing how race or class affect women differently. Intersectionality requires us to consider the most impacted, not just the most visible.

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Intersectionality helps us understand why someone’s pain, survival, or resistance might look different-and why solutions need to reflect that complexity. 

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Sexual Violence Affects Marginalized Groups Disproportionately

• Black women face significantly higher rates of sexual violence; more than 40% experience other forms of sexual violence, like coercion or unwanted sexual contact.  Black women are also significantly more likely not to report SA due to police brutality and the fear of not being believed. 
   

• Transgender and non-binary people, especially those of color, experience extremely high rates of assault. Nearly half of all transgender individuals have been sexually assaulted. Among indigenous transgender people, the number is 65%
   

• LGBTQ+ youth face compounded risk: 1 in 4 LGBTQ+ young people have experienced sexual violence, and the rate is higher for multiracial and Black youth.

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Digital Violence

• A Digital Youth Index report found LGBTQ+ youth are twice as likely to experience online hate speech and harassment as heterosexual youth.
   

• Black women are at a higher risk of abuse on social media platforms. A major Amnesty International study found that Black women were 84% more likely than white women to be mentioned in abusive tweets.

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What is heteronormativity and why does it matter?

​Heteronormativity is the assumption that being heterosexual (straight) and cisgender (identifying with the gender assigned at birth) is the default, normal, or “correct” way to be. It’s a cultural belief system that frames straight, cisgender relationships as natural- and everything else as deviant, confusing, or invisible.

 

Heteronormativity is so important to understand because:

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1. It erases LGBTQ+ survivors.

• Services like shelters, rape crisis centers, and school programs are often designed with only straight, cis women in mind. This means LGBTQ+ survivors may not feel safe, seen, or included.
   

• For example, a trans man who experiences sexual assault may not know where to turn—or may be rejected outright by providers who don’t recognize his identity.

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2. It frames sexual violence in a narrow way.

• If we only think of sexual violence as “a man attacks a woman,” we ignore same-gender violence, violence in queer relationships, and violence against trans people.
   

• This supports the myth that men can’t be victims and women can’t be abusers, which prevents many survivors from being believed or from seeing themselves as survivors at all.

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3. It affects who is policed and who is protected.

• Black trans women and queer youth of color can be profiled as suspicious, criminal, or hypersexual—rather than as people in need of protection. This means they’re more likely to be blamed, misgendered, or arrested than helped.

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4. It shapes online abuse.​

• Digital abusers often use “outing,” misgendering, threats of rape, or deepfake porn as tools to shame, silence, or punish people for existing outside heteronormative norms.
   

If we don’t address and challenge heteronormativity, we:

• Design systems that don’t serve everyone.
   

• Create “solutions” that ignore LGBTQ+ people’s real experiences.
   

• Let harmful myths go unchecked.
   

• Fail to protect those most targeted and least believed.