This past weekend Pink News, a UK-based media outlet, ran a story on a new study out of the University of Derby suggesting that lesbian women in abusive relationships may resist seeking assistance for fear of being outed. Findings from the study were presented at the British Sociological Association’s annul meetings last weekend in Cardiff and indicate that abusive relationships between gay women “can can include physical assaults, sexual coercion and emotional cruelty but victims are put off seeking help because of fear of being outed to friends, colleagues and family.”
The scale of the problem:
Forty women between the ages of 21 and 70 were chosen for the study, believed to the most detailed research into abusive lesbian relationships to date. All of those who took part had experienced abuse in some capacity.
Around 88 per cent of those questioned had suffered physical abuse such as punching, kicking and slapping. Forty five per cent reported had been bullied into performing unwanted sexual activities and ten per cent admitted to having been forced into having sex.
Thirteen per cent had been threatened with being outed by their partner to friends, family and colleagues or outed altogether by the abusive partner, while 18 per cent had felt suicidal or had attempted suicide during the abusive relationship.
The author’s comments:
Dr Rebecca Barnes, who led the study, said: “Only women who had been abused by a previous female partner were invited to participate in the study, with the aim being to examine these relationships in detail rather than trying to establish what proportion of lesbian relationships as a whole is abusive.
“The findings show that women in abusive same-sex relationships experience very similar challenges to women in abusive heterosexual relationships.
“However, being in a same-sex relationship poses additional barriers to seeking and receiving effective support. My findings also showed that abuse in lesbian relationships can involve wide-ranging forms of emotional, physical, financial and sexual abuse, as it can in heterosexual abusive relationships.”
“One of the key differences with same-sex abuse is the secrecy which surrounds many same-sex relationships – a few of my participants had had relationships lasting years which their family or colleagues knew nothing about or which only a few close friends were aware of. This particularly applied to women who were in their first same-sex relationship.”
Comments 2
val littlewolf heike — May 1, 2015
Out soft butch I was slandered by family and am still being harassed for a lie of abusing my mother who for over six years was in the care of her lesbian daughter. I was seen as an easy mark by my half sister and her son in order to get my mother to live in Texas a location she never wanted to live. With me labeled as an abuser an every time I start getting close to my younger sister my older half sister tosses out more lies. This will be my fifth holiday alone as if I'm dead. She used my gayness against me sure the pain would kill me then she would have access to moms money and Ellen is a whimp Diana runs over her and treats me like an alien. Five husbands divorced her its ad if she thinks that if mother has no other chose she can keep her prisoner till she dies. This sadness is harded then loosing your head to a bit who thinks she can't settle for you when there are so many women they haven't been with. Please help. Today in class at Luther College where I'm a senior I couldn't keep from crying.
val littlewolf heike — May 2, 2015
No one cares when we are harassed and slaunders it gives even family permission to harm us.