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If you鈥檝e opened Instagram this month you鈥檝e probably seen rainbow logos and ads for pride festivals aplenty. And you鈥檝e also likely seen posts explaining that Pride started not as a party, but as a protest, and that significant work remains to be done to achieve equal rights for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

Even as corporations change their logos and sponsor floats in parades鈥攖hough admittedly less so in 2025 given the political climate鈥攖here is a rising tide of hate against the queer community. 鈥淨ueerphobia is by no means a thing of the past,鈥� says Professor Allison Smith (Law & Society), 鈥渁nd in recent years we鈥檝e seen a spike in hate crimes against 2SLGBTQIA+ people and communities.鈥� that from 2022 to 2023 hate crimes against the queer community rose by 69%.

While the 2SLGBTQIA+ community often experiences queerphobia out in the open, from vandalism of queer-owned businesses and discrimination in the workplace to outright physical attacks and murder, much of it occurs online.

and can feel especially estranged from traditional paths through the legal system. As Dr. Emily Lockhart (Law & Society) has found in her work on non-consensual intimate image sharing among youth, she says they 鈥渇eel alienated from accessing formal legal justice out of fear of being shamed.鈥�

Similarly, the queer community has a fraught relationship with the justice system. Dr. Lockhart and Professor Smith of 外流影片鈥檚 Law & Society program point to incidents like the Bathhouse Raids in the early 80s, where police targeted queer men through coordinated acts of violence, as one of many roots of distrust with justice systems. Because of this history and ongoing reality, 鈥渜ueer folks often hold very legitimate fears of not being believed or treated with dignity by those in positions of power, which for some means not trusting existing systems,鈥� Prof. Smith says.

This means that when queerphobic hate crimes happen, it can be challenging for victim-survivors to seek justice, especially if those victim-survivors are youth. And with our social lives increasingly online, where perpetrators can be anonymous and emboldened, Dr. Lockhart and Prof. Smith see online violence against queer youth as an urgent issue.

Professor Allison Smith, Molly Sutherland, Hanna McCamon, and Dr. Emily Lockhart

 

Studying law from the ground up

The vulnerability of queer youth to online violence and the intersectional barriers to justice that the demographic faces is exactly the type of large-scale societal problem that the Law & Society program is addressing.

The program, entering its third year in fall 2025, helps students learn a variety of approaches in the socio-legal field. 鈥淭he Law & Society program allows faculty and students to study law from the ground up,鈥� says Dr. Lockhart. 鈥淪tudents will truly learn how to study the interconnectedness of the social and cultural with the legal aspects of our lives.鈥�

In Lockhart and Smith鈥檚 new Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Engage Grant (PEG) funded project they will investigate how technology-facilitated sexual and gender-based violence impacts 2SLGBTQIA+ youth. In partnership with the , they are exploring ways to improve supports and access to justice for victim-survivors.

Through a series of focus groups with victim-survivors of technology-facilitated violence, the researchers will give space for victim-survivors to determine both what the barriers to accessing justice look and feel like, and how they might be mitigated. Lockhart and Smith hope to give victim-survivors a space to articulate what meaningful pathways to justice might look like to them, either within or outside of the criminal justice system.

 

Survivor-led solutions for alternative justice

At its core, the project is 鈥渁n exploration of how queer youth choose or do not choose to engage with justice-related resources, and in particular the criminal justice system,鈥� explains Prof. Smith.

鈥淎s a queer person myself and as someone working in a human rights field, I am deeply invested in forms of justice that are 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusive and trauma informed. I鈥檓 particularly keen on research that centers first-voice perspective and stories. This project provides a vital space for us to learn from queer youth and amplify these voices.鈥�

The survivor-led solutions won鈥檛 end once the focus groups wrap up and the researchers have their information. While the formal research deliverables are educational resources to distribute to high schools, universities, and government agencies, the team is also facilitating youth-led outputs. 鈥淭his might be an art project, a social media campaign鈥攚hatever they want to do,鈥� explains Dr. Lockhart.

Lockhart and Smith are open to any number of proposed solutions and look forward to passing the mic to victim-survivors. 鈥淎lternative justice might take on a variety of forms,鈥� explains Dr. Lockhart. 鈥淚t might be a restorative approach, or it might mean something else entirely separate from the state system. This is what we want to learn from young people. What does justice look like and how can we support it?鈥�

As the project takes off and develops, we will meet the students working with Lockhart and Smith on their study. We鈥檒l hear about what they鈥檙e learning and how the participants see the way forward down a path to justice.

 

Get the Acadia Experience with Dr. Lockhart and Professor Smith

Take LAWS 3013: Human Rights Law and 2SLGBTQIA+ History in Canada with Professor Allison Smith, and LAWS 1003 Intro Law & Society and LAWS4003 Issues in Law & Society with Dr. Emily Lockhart in fall 2025.

To learn more about their project and to get involved in their research focus groups, email Dr. Lockhart or Professor Smith.

Learn more about Professor Smith鈥檚 work for the Legal Information Society of Nova Scotia and the resources they have created for the organization:

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