The media response to the December study in the public health journals is perhaps indicative of the problem. While the research was widely reported in the gay and lesbian press -- along with some criticism of the methodology used by the researchers -- only a couple of mainstream newspapers picked up on the issue. Michael Relf, an assistant professor at Georgetown University's School of Nursing and Health Studies and a lead author of the study, said he still holds out hope that the work will spark further research and encourage public agencies to commit resources and develop services to meet the obvious need.

"The American healthcare system isn't very good at screening for violence against women," he said. "When you add in that many healthcare providers aren't even aware of same-sex domestic violence, or that patients may not be comfortable disclosing their sexual orientation to the provider, then it gets enormously complex, and the questions don't get asked."

But even if the questions are asked, and the severity of the problem, as reflected in Relf's study, is revealed, can he and his fellow researchers assume that healthcare providers, social services agencies, and government-funded support for victims of domestic violence will be increased to accommodate the additional need?

Not necessarily, if history is any guide.

Advocates for the victims of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender domestic violence have long insisted that the incidence of the problem in same-sex relationships is similar to the rate for non-gay couples. For years, even as they have collected data to support their claim, these activists have been frustrated by a consistent lack of attention from researchers, public and private funders, and the extensive network of agencies serving battered (read: heterosexual) women.

There are currently, for example, no known shelters specifically for victims of same-sex domestic violence. Sudduth, the parenting and special programs advocate at the Antelope Valley agency, which runs the Valley Oasis Shelter in Lancaster, Calif., recalled that at a meeting of same-sex domestic violence advocates in Los Angeles, a police officer reported that he experienced intense frustration when he would receive calls from gay victims.

"He's appalled because he has no place to take them and has to drop them off at a Denny's," said Sudduth. "If this was happening to a woman and people found out she was being dropped off at a restaurant, there would be a public outcry."

But advocates for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender victims of domestic violence acknowledge that they have also encountered resistance from some of the very people they have been attempting to help.

"For so long, we've been very closeted about this issue in our own communities," says Virago of Community United Against Violence. "The queer community has struggled for many years to be seen as having healthy and loving relationships, so people are hesitant to put forward anything that's not positive. But our relationships are like heterosexual relationships, just as healthy or just as [messed] up."

Still, over the course of the past decade, a small but growing social service industry has tried to focus attention on the problem. After surviving his experience, Letellier co-wrote a book on the subject -- "Men Who Beat the Men Who Love Them: Battered Gay Men and Domestic Violence" -- and began working for the San Francisco district attorney's office, one of the few local law enforcement agencies around the country that has generally been sympathetic to such concerns.

Now a lecturer on gay and lesbian politics and culture at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Letellier has counseled battered men and women and educated prosecutors and police officers about same-sex domestic violence. He and other activists learned that many gays and lesbians had experiences similar to his own: abuse by an intimate partner combined with denial that same-sex relationships could suffer from the same problems as heterosexual ones. He found familiar embarrassment among his clients about telling family and friends of the abuse, and a pervasive lack of interest on the part of many law enforcement agencies to address the matter.

For members of the NCAVP, the new study on gay domestic violence was way overdue. While they have long been aware of the extent of the problem, they say, it is significant that research published in a major journal confirms what they have been maintaining for years -- that gay domestic violence has steadily increased since they first started collecting numbers six years ago. Their report last year, released in September, cited 5,046 cases of domestic violence during 2001, which was about 25 percent higher than the previous year.

The new study included telephone interviews with men across the country who identified as either gay or bisexual or otherwise acknowledged sexual experiences with male partners. The researchers asked the men about physical battering, such as being hit with fists, being pushed or kicked, or having something thrown at them; psychological or symbolic battering, such as being stalked or verbally threatened; and sexual battering, defined as being forced to have sex. According to the results, 34 percent of those surveyed had experienced psychological abuse, 22 percent physical abuse, and 5 percent sexual abuse.

Recent Stories