Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) for Core Members Who Identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual+ (LGBTQIA+): An Exploratory Study.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual+ (LGBTQIA+) individuals are overrepresented in prison and face increased criminal justice attention on sexual offending. Furthermore, LGBTQIA+ individuals experience challenges reintegrating into communities following prison. Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA)-a measure to support the community reintegration of people with sexual offence convictions-might therefore be mobilized to assist LGBTQIA+ individuals. Indeed, some research has found an overrepresentation of LGBTQIA+ "core members" (the non-stigmatising term used within CoSA) engaged in CoSA. However, little has been documented about the experiences of this cohort. It is critical to document their experiences given concerns about CoSA's heteronormativity. This research addresses this gap through a survey and semi-structured interviews with CoSA staff and volunteers, and LGBTQIA+ core members. Findings highlight the unique challenges that LGBTQIA+ core members can present for CoSA, including heightened stigmatization, and the importance of CoSA providing non-judgmental support to LGBTQIA+ core members. LGBTQIA+ core members indicated that they would welcome assistance from CoSA to access prosocial LGBTQIA+ networks in the community. Their views thus reflect one of the key founding principles of CoSA-that "no one is disposable." Based on this, recommendations are made for CoSA policy and practice.