LGBT and non-binary people in boxes. Statistical categorization and criticism of gender and sexuality assignation in a study on violence

This article looks at the criticisms levelled against a statistical study of gender violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) individuals. During the questionnaire and data collection, respondents considered the recording of gender and sexuality to be problematic, particularly when they refused to define themselves as male or female, bisexual or homosexual, describing themselves instead as “non-binary”. Although they represent a minority, these criticisms are interesting in that they challenge the framework of this study into violence, and in fact denounce it as being violent in itself. The article distinguishes between two registers of criticism, one that seeks the recognition of minority identifications and the other that questions categorization in itself. The critical respondents are younger than the others, often women, most often identifying as bisexual, and sometimes in situations of downward mobility. Criticism can be seen as the expression of an indetermination that is both a lived experience and a political claim, often proclaimed by individuals who are all the more likely to refuse dominant assignations of gender and sexuality as the latter are less relevant and less salient for them.