Wherever you are in your personal life, you deserve a healthy and safe relationship.
All too often, GLBT folks are invisible victims of domestic violence. The fact is that
domestic violence occurs in 25‐33% of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
relationships – approximately the same rate as in heterosexual relationships.
Domestic violence occurs within same-sex relationships as it does in heterosexual relationships. The acronym LGBT is often used and stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.
According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs:
All too often, GLBT folks are invisible victims of domestic violence. The fact is that
domestic violence occurs in 25‐33% of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
relationships – approximately the same rate as in heterosexual relationships.
Domestic violence occurs within same-sex relationships as it does in heterosexual relationships. The acronym LGBT is often used and stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.
- 11% of lesbians reported violence by their female partner and 15% of
gay men who had lived with a male partner reported being victimized by a male
partner.
Patricia Tjaden, Symposium on Integrating Responses to Domestic Violence: Extent and Nature of Intimate Partner Violence as measured by the National Violence Against Women Survey, 47 Loy. L. Rev. 41, 54 (2003).
- Of the LGBT victims who sought services from the New York City Gay and
Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, 36% of clients in 2003 and 38% of clients in 2004
filed police reports regarding intimate partner violence.
Diane Dolan-Soto & Sara Kaplan, New York Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Bisexual Domestic Violence Report, at 6 (2005), available at http://www.avp.org/publications/reports/2005nycdvrpt.pdf .
- Eighty-eight percent of victims in 2003 and 91 percent of victims in
2004 reported experiencing prior incidents of abuse, with the majority (45
percent and 47 percent, respectively) reporting having experienced more than 10
prior incidents.
Diane Dolan-Soto & Sara Kaplan, New York Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Bisexual Domestic Violence Report, at 5 (2005), available at http://www.avp.org/publications/reports/2005nycdvrpt.pdf .
- One survey found that same-sex cohabitants reported significantly more
intimate partner violence than did opposite-sex cohabitants. Among women, 39.2%
of the same-sex cohabitants and 21.7 of the opposite- sex cohabitants reported
being raped, physically assaulted, and/or stalked by a marital/cohabiting
partner at some time in their lifetime.
Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 181867, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, at 30 (2000), available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/181867.htm
- 15.4% of same-sex cohabiting men reported being raped, physically
assaulted and/or stalked by a male partner, but 10.8% reported such violence by
a female partner.
Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 181867, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, at 30 (2000), available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/181867.htm
According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs:
- 6,523 incidence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender violence were recorded in eleven distinct cities and regions across the USA and Toronto, Ontario. 44% of the victims were men and 36% were women. This represented a 13% increase over the 5718 cases reported in 2002 by the same agencies and includes six reported deaths in the context of actual or suspected LGBT violence. Arizona reported one death and New York City reported five deaths.
- 4,964 or about 79% of the new incidents were reported in Los Angeles. The number of LGBT incidents in other cities and states include Boston (290), New York City (501), San Francisco (388), Colorado (139) , Chicago (65), Columbus, Ohio (46) , Pennsylvania (19) , Burlington, Vermont (21), Tuscon (64).
- 5,374 (82%) of the victims of domestic violence reported to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs identified themselves as gay; 575 (9%) were cases in which the victim declined to specify a sexual orientation or it was not recorded; 263 (4%) identified as bisexual; and 44 (0.6 %) were not sure or questioned their sexual orientation.
- Of the 42% incidence of domestic violence where race was recorded,
1,211 or 44% were white, 684 or 25% were Latino, 413 or 15% were of African
descent, 153 or 5% were Asian/Pacific Islander, 125 or 4% were multicultural;
just under 36 or 0.01% were indigenous/first people and about 0.01 were
Arab/Middle Easterners, Jewish and others.
Nat'l Advoc. for Local Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Communities, Nat'l Coal. of Anti-Violence Programs, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Domestic Violence: 2003 Supplement - An Update from the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (2004), at 3-8, 10, available at http://www.avp.org/publications/reports/reports.htm