Study: Bi Women and Gay Men Suffer More Domestic Violence

[La Lioness Priyanka]

The study finds that bisexual women are more at risk of "experiencing intimate partner violence compared with heterosexual women, lesbians and women who have sex with women." The report also notes that in 95 percent of the intimate partner violence incidents reported by bisexual women, the "perpetrator was a male intimate partner, indicating that the violence occurred outside a same-sex relationship."


According to the report, gay men also have a high risk of suffering domestic violence with straight men, bisexual men and men who have sex with men but do not identify as gay or bisexual. "Almost all (97 percent) of the annual incidents of intimate partner violence incidents occurring to male victims involved a male intimate partner," according to the report.

http://www.edgenewyork.com/news/national/news//137736/study:_bi_women_and_gay_men_suffer_more_domestic_violence

[William769]

1. Nothing would please me more than to see this bill passed.

[HillWilliam]

2. That would be a much-needed landmark

As someone who as been on the wrong side of domestic violence, I can tell you that there is no help, no one takes you seriously, there is nowhere to turn, and the only way out is to dig your own way out. No one should feel that totally alone and abandoned by society. I can tell you about the shame of being a grown man feeling constantly bullied and assaulted by someone who is supposed to be your spouse and helpmeet. You can't turn to anyone. Society (quite wrongly, I think) puts different expectations on men.

I haven't worn those shoes, but I'm willing to bet that anyone in authority sneers with equal alacrity at a woman who's being battered by a female spouse.

What do you do? Everywhere I called only had shelter or counseling for straight women. Nothing for battered men at all even though it does happen, even in in hetero households, as if men have no feelings or suffer no trauma at all. To wit:

When you do get away and try to pick up the pieces, there seems to be little to no counseling, no assistance for housing, no shelter to turn to, you're on your own. I was lucky to have one good friend who figured out my situation and offered a couch and a safe place to stay until I could get otherwise settled. Even though the house was MINE, I was for a time homeless.

Sumbitch.

Good heavens, there's a crying need for equal legislation and equal protection. Battered same-sex spouses happen a lot more than any of us are willing to talk about -- but we need to talk about it in order to fix it.