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Lgbtq Domestic Violence

Decent Essays

Domestic violence is defined by the government as "Any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between adults who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality." (Gov.uk, 2009). The issues surrounding domestic violence in the UK are far reaching but still heavily under-examined. In the UK, one incident of domestic abuse is reported per minute, and on average two women die as a result of abuse from an ex or current partner per week (Walby and Allen, 2004). Domestic violence , though a lot of the official statistics surrounding it and institutions such as the media would have it seem, occurs just as frequently in the LGBTQ+ community …show more content…

The purpose of this piece is not to come to conclusions about how abuse in the LGBTQ community is worse or better than other groups’ experiences with domestic abuse. There is no conceivable logic in attempting to minimise certain groups’ experiences in order to maximise attention towards others; instead this piece will examine these specific issues on a deeper level.

Domestic abuse in the LGBT community is said to be a ‘silent epidemic’ (Shwayder, 2013). This phrase in all of its oxymoronic sentiment is perhaps one of the most fitting descriptions of these experiences of abuse, and the hidden nature of them. The attention towards heterosexual abuse is already not sufficient enough, but it may seem that abuse in the LGBTQ+ community is even less heard of. There are a plethora of reasons that may be attributed to this. One in particular is the framing of domestic abuse as a heterosexual and gendered matter only. This can be seen to minimise the experiences of LGBTQ+ abuse as it ‘has been seen as excluding of people

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