The #MeToo movement brought a much-needed spotlight to sexual violence, but less of that light has been shone on the male victims of rape and sexual assault. It is estimated that in the UK that annually 12,000 men are raped and 76,000 are sexually abused, whilst research from the USA found 1 in 6 men were likely to be victims of sexual assault. However, there was no research on its impacts within the LGBTIQA community.
SurvivorsUK is a UK based charity that provides specialist support to cis and trans men, boys, and non-binary people who have been raped, sexually assaulted or abused. The charity has recently conducted ground-breaking research looking into gay and bisexual men’s experiences of sexual violence in the UK. Tonight, we are joined by Meka Beresford and Sam Thomson from SurvivorsUK, who are co-authors of the report into the findings of that research.