Help American LGBTQ Victims of Violence Overseas

Dominique loves to travel and spent most of June exploring Portugal & Spain going to different Pride celebrations.

He had seen the State Department alert for LGBTQ travel abroad and felt he would be fine. Unfortunately for Dominique, while there weren't any terrorist attacks where he was, there were isolated incidents of violence.

He and a male friend were attacked but luckily bystanders intervened before they were injured too badly. Dominique contacted us for emotional support, a referral to resources in the country and resources for when he returned home. He decided not to make a police report as the men left the scene quickly and he was afraid of retribution.

Dominque was relieved to have someone to communicate with in the immediate aftermath of the attack and to process what had happened. He was also grateful that we supported his decision not to contact the police as the safest decision for him.

We're happy that Dominque is now back in the USA and is receiving counseling. He is grateful for our help and we are grateful to you for supporting this project so we are available for LGBTQ victims of violence abroad! Thank you!

The Pathways Team.

Eve loves India. She had been to India before and decided to spend some time in Northern India.

She was confident traveling solo and always stayed in hostels where there were people from all over the world. She was very careful and took precautions. She had also taken some self-defense courses. She did not openly disclose her identity as an LGBTQ person.

Unfortunately, one night, she woke up in the middle of the night with a man on top of her trying to force his penis into her.

Eve screamed and was able to maneuver her way away from him. Others came to help her and they held down the man until the police arrived.

When Eve emailed our crisis email, she was distraught. When the police arrived, her attacker told police that she had met him earlier in the day, she had invited him into her room to have sex and it was consensual. But when he tried to have intercourse with her, she said no so he stopped. In his words "nothing happened."

It was his word against hers. She had sat at a table with a group of other travelers for lunch at a nearby restaurant earlier that day and he was also at the table. They did exchange a few words but he spoke very little English to her and she didn't speak any German.

The police seemed to shrug it off as a misunderstanding between two foreigners who spoke different languages and seemed disinterested in the situation. When the police asked him how he got into her room, he told them she had let him in.

Eve felt that this was not the first time her perpetrator had done this as he was very convincing in his story.  She wanted to press charges, but she also felt that it would be useless. She felt defeated and shamed. She did not want to tell the police she was a lesbian as she felt that might make matters worse.

We helped Eve process her trauma, believed her, validated her experience, supported her in her decisions, let her know what rape crisis resources were available for her and connected her to a rape crisis center with an LGBTQ specific counselor in her city in the USA as she only had three days left in India before she returned home.

Without donations like yours we would not be able to provide support to American LGBTQ victims of sexual assault via our crisis email to help them feel supported, heard and believed.

Thank you from the Pathways' Team