LGBTQIA+ Community & Domestic Abuse

Domestic Abuse can happen to anyone, but it doesn’t always present in the same way.

Those in the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans Queer Intersex Asexual+ (LGBTQIA+) community may experience specific forms of abuse and be at risk of certain types of abuse more often than others.

This page provides a brief summary of some key points of awareness around domestic abuse in the LGBTQIA+ community, it’s prevalence, and the barriers faced by those in the community when accessing support.

If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, please call 999

This video was produced by ACON Health based in New South Wales, Australia

Prevalence of abuse in the LGBTQIA+ community

These are the average numbers of people from each community who are likely to experience domestic abuse in their lifetimes.

In 2018, Galop’s national research showed that 11% of LGBT people had faced domestic abuse from a partner in the last year. This increased to 17% of black, Asian and minority ethnic LGBT people.

LGBTQIA+ prevalence

Stonewall, 2018
Scottish Transgender Alliance, 2013

LGBTQIA+ Domestic Abuse

Power and Control in LGBTQIA+ Relationships

People from the LGBTQIA+ Community will experience many well-established tactics of power and control by their perpetrator/s.

However, they are also more at risk to be subject to particular forms of power and control as a result of the social rejection of their identity and the general landscape of discrimination and continued social stigmatisation around those in the community.

This may include:

  • Homophobia/Biphobia/Transphobia or manipulation of someone’s internalised Homophobia/Biphobia/Transphobia

  • Conversion therapy

  • Threats to ‘out’ someone to their family/ colleagues/ friends

  • Withholding housing or financial support from them

  • Withholding medication or access to healthcare

Difficulties with disclosure

  • The history of violence and legal discrimination as well as the general homo/trans/biphobia in British society can dissuade LGBTQ+ victim-survivors from disclosing for fear of giving a community already being marginalised a ‘bad name’.

  • Fear of ‘outing’ themselves by reporting. This is often compounded when living in smaller towns and rural areas and can make it difficult for the abused partner to seek help.

  • Heteronormative assumptions may lead Police and other agencies to misunderstand the situation as a ‘fight’ between two men or women rather than a violent intimate relationship.

  • Most information on domestic abuse relates to the experiences of heterosexual women.

    This lack of understanding means that some people may not:

    • Believe it happens in LGBTQ+ relationships.
    • Recognise their experience of domestic abuse as that.
    • Know how to respond if they see domestic abuse being experienced by their friends or family.

Further Reading and Resources