Intersections: Cultures, sexualités et genres

Chapitre 16. Same-Sex Relationship Violence and the Need for Intersectionality: Hearing the Voices of Women at the Margins

16 C H A P I T R E SAME-SEX RELATIONSHIP VIOLENCE AND THE NEED FOR INTERSECTIONALITY1 Hearing the Voices of Women at the Margins Janice RISTOCK 1. This research was supported by a grant from the Lesbian Health Fund of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association and from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Many thanks to Vycki Anastasiadis, Caroline Fusco, Sabine Heckel, Cindy Holmes, Natasha Hurley, Jan Mitchell and Betsy Szilock who worked as research assistants on the project. Also thanks to the Rainbow Resource Centre in Winnipeg; The FREDA Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children and The Centre for GLBT’s and Allies in Vancouver; The David Kelley GLBT Counselling Program and Women’s Health in Women’s Hands in Toronto; the Sexual Assault Centre in London, Ontario, Peer Support Services for Battered Women in Calgary, and the Avalon Sexual Assault Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia; special thanks to Myrna Carlsen, Laurie Chesley, Karlene Faith, Donna Huen,Yasmin Jiwani, Louise MacPherson, Marg McGill, Kathleen O’Connell, Jane Oxenbury, Donna Wilson, Rae-Ann Wood-Shatz. 440 Intersections 1. BACKGROUND: WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT SAME-SEX RELATIONSHIP VIOLENCE? Research on same-sex relationship violence was almost non-existent until the past twenty years. A great deal of the research that has been done has focused on documenting the problem of same-sex relationship violence by determining the rates or the prevalence of abuse in order to have it acknowledged by the mainstream. A range of relationship violence rates from 17% to 52% have been reported amongst lesbian and gay couples (see for example, Lie and Gentlewarrier, 1991; Lockhart, White, Causby and Isaac, 1994; Waldner-Haugrud, Vaden Gratch and Magruder, 1997; Renzetti, 2001). Very few studies have included people who identify as transgender or intersex. One study found that one in ten transgender people had experienced relationship violence (Xavier, 2000). Another survey of transgender and intersex people found that 50% had been raped or assaulted by an intimate partner. Yet only 62% (31% of the total sample) of those raped or assaulted identified as survivors of domestic violence when asked directly (Courvant and Cook-Daniels, 2000). Research on violence experienced by people who identify as bisexual is lacking and their experiences tend to be lumped into the category of lesbian or gay men. Further, most of the research remains focused on white gay men and lesbians who are often in their mid-twenties or thirties and college educated (Kanuha, 1990; Butler, 1999; Mahoney, Williams and West, 2001). Despite the gaps in our knowledge, many researchers and service providers have concluded that violence in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender , queer (LGBTQ) relationships occurs at the same rate as or in even higher rates than heterosexual violence.Yet we have to interpret the results of the existing research carefully. These studies rely on individuals’ selfselecting and self-reporting violence and are therefore not true prevalence studies. Further, they use different definitions of relationship violence with some restricting the definition to physical violence while others encompass a broad definition and do not differentiate between emotional, verbal, and physical forms of violence. Given these difficulties, we simply cannot say for certain what the prevalence rates of violence are in lesbian, gay, bisexual , transgender, queer (LGBTQ) relationships or what types of abuse are experienced more frequently than others. However the research certainly suggests this is a problem that we should be concerned about and that it is not an anomaly. Same-Sex Relationship Violence and the Need for Intersectionality 441 Other sources of data that provide important information on the scope of this form of violence include the annual reports of the U.S. National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects (NCAVP). The NCAVP collects statistics from programs that provide services specifically for LGBT (they do not include the category queer in their descriptions) relationship violence in many cities throughout the country. In 2003, twelve NCAVP member organizations along with several affiliated programs reported 6,253 LGBT domestic violence incidents. Of these 3,344 cases (44%) were men who had been victimized while 2,357 (33%) were women; 161 (2%) identified as male-to-female transgender and 31 were female-to-male. The great majority of these cases involved victims who identified as gay or lesbian (82%). In 263 instances (4%) the victims identified as bisexual and 263 cases included victims who identified as heterosexual (a category...