Lesbians are more likely to experience partner violence, study finds

Physical and verbal assaults, followed by extensive apologies, are part of the classic pattern of domestic abuse – a picture commonly associated with a male abuser and a female victim. But one of the biggest misconceptions about intimate partner abuse is the idea that it doesn’t exist in same-sex relationships.

A report released in 2013 by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) pointed out that lesbian women are more likely to suffer physical violence from their partner – and they accounted for 19% of victims of passionate homicide.

The data sounds even more impressive when one takes into account that only 1.5% of women in the United States self-declare as lesbians and 0.9% as bisexual.

Whether in heterosexual or homosexual relationships, abuse is characterized by a pattern of behavior in which one partner seeks to gain power and control over the other.

“Usually posted images depicting abuse show a woman with an injured eye and the assumption is that her abuser is a man,” explains Vilma Uribe, leader of La Red, a Boston-based organization that supports the LGBT community. “People don’t recognize that abuse can happen between women. And it’s not just about physical abuse. Emotional and verbal abuse can also have a huge consequence.”

Although manipulation in same-sex relationships also happens in heterosexual relationships, the abuse is compounded by the marginalized status that homosexuals still have in different communities. “The aggressor can use someone’s identity against him, threatening or saying that no one will believe the complaint because of his sexual orientation,” said Uribe. The picture becomes even worse for black LGBT people. According to the NCAVP report, black people make up the majority of survivors of domestic violence.

Once domestic abuse has been reported, finding support services is even more difficult for those leaving a same-sex relationship. The unpreparedness makes the specialists end up excluding the survivors even more. According to the institute’s report, in shelters, the number of lesbians who have suffered violence is 4.9 times greater than that of other victims.

The system itself is clearly unprepared for this type of situation. “Stereotypes are used against them”, says Uribe, revealing that he has already collected reports from women who asked for police help in the face of an incident of domestic violence with a female aggressor and heard from the officers that it was nothing more than “a fight of cats”.

For her, the biggest challenge to change this situation is raising awareness in society as a whole. “We need to create communities where we are accountable to each other. We also need to address homophobia within our spaces,” she said.