Gender101@Bowdoin

Same-Sex domestic violence rose in 2010

mrh9009:

In looking into statistics on same-sex domestic violence, I found this somewhat disturbing article, which discusses a recent increase in same-sex domestic violence. http://lezgetreal.com/2011/10/same-sex-domestic-violence-rose-significantly-in-2010/ They found that there was an increase in both the number of cases and the severity of same-sex domestic violence, including six documented deaths. What I find the most disturbing, however, is the fact that there are so few resources for survivors of same-sex domestic violence. First, there aren’t many shelters for survivors. Second, survivors of same-sex domestic violence have been turned away from shelters that help survivors of opposite sex domestic violence. Thirdly, survivors of same-sex domestic violence have major problems dealing with law enforcement, which largely ignores same-sex domestic violence. This raised a bunch of questions for me:

1. Why is there such disparity in the resources available to survivors of same-sex domestic violence as compared to survivors of opposite-sex domestic violence?

2. Should the services for survivors of same-sex and opposite-sex domestic violence be different? Why/why not?

3. What might this recent increase in same-sex domestic violence tell us about the idea that was raised in class that domestic violence against women has to do with power/gender roles?