We refuse to abandon any survivor. Write the National Sexual Assault Hotline @rainn and ask them to reinstate equal services for trans, queer, BIPOC, and immigrant survivors. #DearRAINN
On January 28, 2025, the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), operator of the National Sexual Assault Hotline, made the unprecedented decision to offer fewer services to some survivors on the basis of their gender, race, or immigrant status.
While all survivors can still come to our nation’s hotline for empathetic listening, safety planning, and support - Queer, trans, undocumented, and BIPOC survivors can no longer receive referrals to organizations and resources that meet their community- and identity-specific needs. Survivors who are not members of these groups continue to receive community- and identity-specific resources.
Hotline staff and volunteers have been banned from sharing over two dozen previously approved resources that offer specialized support for these communities, ranging from Asian-language survivor hotlines to books helping survivors processing the specific traumas of same-sex assault. There is no substitute for being able to speak in a language you understand about the trauma you have faced.
As volunteers taking chats from survivors every day, we say: When a young trans survivor has just been assaulted and is suicidal, we abandon them and our duty when we actively withhold a referral to Trans Lifeline to address their emergency needs. When an undocumented mother fleeing domestic violence needs to know her legal options for protection, we abandon her when we actively withhold knowledge of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, as we were directed to do. We refuse to abandon any survivor.
Below you can read our attempts to contact RAINN leadership, including its Board of Directors, to enact change from within. The Board has affirmed the organization’s decision to offer unequal services to survivors on the basis of their identity. RAINN continues to reiterate the talking point that it serves “all survivors,” but the truth remains that it serves some of those survivors more than others. Together, we want to change that.
If you feel moved to stand in solidarity with survivors, join us in writing your own letter to RAINN starting #DearRAINN on X or Insta @rainn or write to [email protected]. Tell them to reinstate the banned resources and share:
If you are one of the dozens of companies with a contract with RAINN, please reach out to them and ask them why they have reduced their services for your community and ask where this is in your contract with them.
If you are a current volunteer or staffer, email us at [email protected] to join our movement making change from within.
May 5, 2025