Same-sex sexual harassment

Sexual harassment of males by males, and of women by women, can be verbal, visual, emotional and physical. It is difficult to say when sexual teasing and joking amongst friends or colleagues of the same sex moves from entertaining conversation, education, fun or intimacy into discomfort and harassment. Certainly unwanted homosexual physical advances, attempted or forced, fall into the realm of harassment.

Abuses are most likely to occur in gender-segregated institutions or social environments conducive to same-sex intimacy. These include workplaces, military camps, schools and prisons. Much is unreported.