Susan Xenarios, LCSW, a visionary and dynamic leader of New York’s crime victim movement for 50 years and a courageous ally of the LGBTQ community, died on Sept. 6 in Manhattan. She was 79.
In 1974, an assailant held a knife to Xenarios’ throat and raped her on a rooftop in Upper Manhattan. At a time when few sexual assault victims spoke out, she began a lifelong, very public campaign to improve the care and treatment of survivors and to reform laws and police procedures. Along with her high-profile advocacy, she never stopped counseling individual survivors of crime, pioneering breakthrough therapeutic interventions.
Xenarios led the creation of New York’s first program to provide assistance to survivors of sexual assault, the state’s first clinical program for male survivors, and the New York Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner (SAFE) Program, which ensures survivor-centered emergency room protocols, including evidence collection. She served as executive director of the Crime Victims Treatment Center in New York City for 40 years (1977 -2017).
Xenarios also was a driving force behind several state laws to advance the rights of crime survivors, including a 1993 law protecting the confidentiality of rape crisis center communications; the Hate Crimes Act of 2000, which included enhanced penalties for hate-motivated crimes, including anti-LGBTQ assaults; the 2003 law removing the terms “sodomy” and “deviate sexual intercourse” from New York’s sex offenses laws; and the 2015 “Enough is Enough” law, one of the first laws in the nation to require all colleges to adopt a set of comprehensive procedures for addressing sexual violence on campuses.
“Susan was a force of nature, a mentor, an extraordinary ally to the LGBT community, and a dear friend,” said Bea Hanson, who is the director of the New York State Office of Victim Services and previously served as principal deputy director of the federal Office on Violence Against Women during President Obama’s Administration (2011-2017) and director of client services of the NYC Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project (1991-1997). “She was a leader in advocating for the rights of sexual assault survivors and all crime victims. She spoke truth to power with a smile on her face and love in her heart. She will be missed.”
Matt Foreman, former executive director of the NYC Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project (1990-1996) and the Empire State Pride Agenda (1996-2003), described Xenarios as “the greatest champion and friend of LGBT victims of crime there ever was or ever will be.”
“She was one of the first to recognize the prevalence of sexual assault against men and she created the first program to help male survivors,” Foreman said. “When there was enormous pressure to pass a hate crimes law that did not include anti-LGBT offenses, she made sure the larger movement did not abandon us. She understood the harmful effects of having terms like ‘sodomy’ and ‘deviate sexual intercourse’ in New York State law and led the successful drive to purge them from the books. She was so genuinely warm and supportive, I was shocked when I learned that she wasn’t a lesbian.”
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, Sept. 20 at 11 a.m. at West End Collegiate Church, 245 W. 77th Street in Manhattan.
