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Effects of inter-personal violence and assault for LGBT identified individuals

Several important aspects of lesbian, bisexual, and gay relationships mean that sexual assault and intimate partner violence is often experienced differently:

Local resources for sexual assault and intimate partner violence in the LGBT community are often scarce and many traditional domestic violence services lack the training, sensitivity, and expertise to adequately recognize and address sexual assault of LGBT individuals and abuse in LGBT relationships. Lesbians and bisexual women can usually access these services, but it is not always easy or comfortable. There is limited access for transgender women and men. It is important to point out that for gay or bisexual male survivors there are no shelters anywhere in Colorado. Someone who identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender must overcome homophobia and/or transphobia in addition to the denial that comes with being in an abusive relationship. LGBT individuals who have been abused have much more difficulty in finding sources of support than heterosexual women who are battered or assaulted by their male partners.

In abusive relationships, a pattern of violence or behaviors exists where one seeks to control the thoughts, beliefs, or conduct of their intimate partner, or to punish their partner for resisting their control. This may been seen as physical or sexual violence, or emotional and verbal abuse. An additional form of emotional abuse for someone who is gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender may be to out them at work or to family or friends. Outing is the act of revealing the sexual orientation, gender identity or HIV status of a person without his/her consent.

Utilizing existing services (such as a shelter, attending support groups or calling a crisis line) can mean lying or hiding the gender of the batterer to be perceived (and thus accepted) as a heterosexual. Or it can mean "coming out", which is a major life decision for many. If individuals who identify as LGBT come out to service providers who do not honor confidentiality , it could lead to the victim losing their home, job, custody of children, etc. This may also precipitate local and/or statewide laws to affect some of these changes, depending on the area. (Information taken from www.aardvarc.org/)

In 2007, Colorado passed a nondiscrimination law protecting LGBT people from employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or transgender status.
Individuals who identify as transgender can often face additional challenges when seeking assistance about sexual or domestic violence. Our culture strongly promotes the idea of an immutable gender binary in which people are supposed to fit into only one of just two gender boxes, and stay there from birth to death. Because transgender people challenge this assumption, many people use harassment and even violence to target gender non-conforming people (both trans and non-trans identified). Individuals who identify as transgender may also identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or heterosexual. A transgender individual seeking help from an abusive relationship is likely to have to deal with a provider's lack of understanding about transgender identities and assumptions about the individual's sexual orientation.

If LGBT survivors have their lives financially intertwined with their abusive partner, such as each paying a rent or mortgage and having "built a home together", there is no legal process to assist in making sure assets are evenly divided, a process which exists for their married, heterosexual counterparts.

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