Public Awareness

OPDV Bulletin: Introducing a New Curriculum on Domestic Violence in LGTB Relationships


Under contract with the NYSDOH AIDS Institute, OPDV has recently completed a new curriculum, "Domestic Violence in Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Bisexual (LGTB) Communities." Domestic violence has long been an integral part of the AIDS Institute's training for HIV service providers because people with HIV/AIDS are at high risk of such victimization. When the victim is also LGTB, the difficulty in finding safe, accessible, and sensitive responses from service providers and authorities increases dramatically.


When the HIV Reporting and Partner Notification law was enacted, OPDV and the AIDS Institute worked closely together to develop a domestic violence screening protocol and supporting materials. The process of developing these materials, along with HIV service providers' responses to the legislation, provided the impetus for adding this new curriculum to the AIDS Institute's training materials. Understanding domestic violence helps those HIV human service providers who do not have specific reporting responsibilities better meet the needs of their clients. However, it is not just HIV providers who need to understand LGTB domestic violence; other health and human service providers also need this information.


Research on domestic violence in LGTB relationships is limited, but statistics suggest that its prevalence is similar to that in heterosexual relationships, with anywhere from 17% to 46% of lesbians and gay men reporting abuse by a current or former partner. The dynamics of domestic violence are similar regardless of the gender identity and sexual orientation of the partners, and as in heterosexual domestic violence, others are also at risk, including children, pets, family members and friends of the victim. However, several additional factors affect the experience of LGTB victims: the assumptions people make about domestic violence in LGTB relationships, the additional controlling tactics at the disposal of LGTB abusers, the additional risks facing victims, and the lack of services in most communities.


This curriculum corrects many erroneous assumptions about domestic violence in LGTB relationships and explores their practical implications for victims who seek help. For instance, authorities and helpers who assume that the larger partner is the abuser may disregard evidence to the contrary. Police who think that LGTB partners are simply fighting will likely arrest both (or neither) parties and disregard the fact that they are dealing with an abuser and a victim. Health and human service providers who do not believe that women can be violent or that men can be victimized will not offer adequate support or appropriate referrals to victims. Such providers may be perceived as hostile, judgmental, or inaccessible. Trainees learn that size and strength do not determine which partner is abusive, that the violence in LGTB relationships is not mutual any more often than it is in heterosexual relationships, and that both women and men suffer abuse by same-sex partners. It may appear to outsiders that the risk of insensitive responses from providers is far outweighed by the risk of harm at the hands of the abuser, but those risks may look very different to the individual involved.


The new curriculum teaches health and human service providers how to ask their LGTB clients about domestic violence, the potential source of many physical and mental health problems. They can then intervene in ways that maximize the client's safety. Acknowledging that some LGTB people are abused by their partners is the first step toward intervention, regularly asking individual clients about it is the second, and responding appropriately is the third.


To work respectfully and sensitively with LGTB victims, providers can take several simple steps:

  • Don't use gender-specific pronouns to refer to the client's partner until the client does.
  • Say "partner" instead of husband or wife until you know how the client refers to his/her significant other.
  • Ask how long the person has been with their partner, not how long they have been married.
  • Pay particular attention to the abuser's use of LGTB-specific tactics.
  • Always remember that there may be children whose safety must be considered.
  • Help them plan how to avoid or escape immediate danger, reduce harm to themselves and their children, safeguard their non-biological children and maintain a relationship with them, deal with custody and visitation issues, and address HIV-related safety issues, if any.
  • Help clients assess both risks and benefits of contacting authorities, seeking shelter, revealing the abuse to members of their LGTB community, and coming out as LGTB to seek help.
  • Remember that many strategies used by battered heterosexual women have the potential to backfire for LGTB victims.
  • Build a linkage with local LGTB community-based organizations.

This one-day curriculum is being offered statewide by the AIDS Institute's contract training staff beginning this spring. For information on when this curriculum may be offered in your community, contact the AIDS Institute at (518) 474-9866.


The following are quotes from survivors:


"If I spend more than an hour away from the house, other than work, I'm abandoning him….I can't go out and do things with friends that would be completely platonic…he automatically...accuses me of having an affair." (Cruz, J.M. & Firestone, J.M. 1998, p 167)


"It took me a long time to realize that anything was wrong. She was my first lesbian relationship…so I thought all relationships are like that and when things were bad…that it was all my fault." (Renzetti, C. 1992, p 82)


"I called the police, but nothing was done about it. I kept thinking, 'No one cares because I am a lesbian.' The police basically took the attitude, 'So two dykes are trying to kill each other; big deal.'" (Renzetti, p 91)


"I saw a small pink flyer stapled to a telephone pole...I saw for the first time the words 'Gay Domestic Violence.' ...Quite suddenly my life became a lot clearer...I began to think about leaving Stephen, about somehow escaping from him and his abuse...Four months later, I succeeded." (Island, D. & Letellier, P. 1991, p 133)

If you are an LGTB victim of domestic violence, there are resources available to help you. All licensed domestic violence service providers in New York State are required to serve LGTB victims. Some programs have developed services that are intended to be "LGTB-Sensitive" (LGTB services integrated with other agency programming) or "LGTB-Specific" (specific services for LGTB victims of domestic violence). There are also LGTB-Sensitive or Specific programs throughout the United States that maintain informative websites. A brief listing follows: