Domestic Violence Biased Towards Men & Under Resourced For LGBTIQ Communities | Stone Group Lawyers

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Domestic violence biased towards men and under resourced for LGBTIQ communities

Domestic violence is an issue that is well documented and gaining awareness in our society with a focus on protecting the victims, who are predominately women. Without discounting the severity of domestic violence toward women, this article focusses on identifying the other issues in our legal sphere which may have been overlooked.

It has commonly been questioned whether or not the domestic violence in our legal system is unfair to men and unable to cater for individuals in LGBTIQ relationships.  The common presumption exists that all men are the perpetrators of domestic violence. Further, we are failing to recognise the large prevalence of domestic violence in LGBTIQ relationships. It is important to note that with the limited options in both of these topics to look at whether or not we have adequate support services available to individuals involved in domestic violence.

Domestic Violence Support –Men vs Women

Domestic violence is becoming more of a serious concern due to an increase in serious violent incidents occurring around Queensland. The Southport Court House in the Gold Coast opened its own specialised domestic violence court room in 2015 with two domestic violence Magistrates who hear matters surrounding domestic violence laws only.

In Queensland, female victims of domestic violence are provided a number of support services from providers such as Centacare, Domestic Violence Prevention Centre, DVConnect, Domestic Violence Hotlines and many other small scale operations. Statistics show that these services are relied upon more and more each year. For example, DVConnect had an increase of 700 motel nights in 2016 provided to women needing to leave the family home. In contrast, although there are some services for men who are the victims, availability to men is significantly reduced (in particular, funding wise), and instead, support focusses on rehabilitating men from violent behaviour and ensuring they are part of an intervention program.

Observations from our firm in particular have shocked a number of our lawyers to see that there is a support / victims room at the Southport Magistrates Court, only provided to women with a separate entrance to the court room. With the importance of this room identified, it can be argued that the Southport Magistrates Court should provide an equal service to men. We flag this as an issue of particular concern when our office represents men as the victim/aggrieved in many of our matters.  To emphasise this point, according to a study by the ABS Personal Safety Survey by Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety approximately 694,100 men reported experiencing at least one incident of violence by a female partner since the age of 15. Although the women’s statistics are approximately four times higher, it should not discount that the amount of men experiencing domestic violence is also extremely large and of serious concern.

LGBIT Domestic Violence Support

The focus in Australia, particularly Queensland in the context of domestic violence is on heterosexual relationships. Individuals in sexually or gender diverse communities who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer are often overlooked and the limited research is not promoted nearly enough.

The Australian Research Centre for Health and Sexuality has conducted a study on LGBTIQ individuals showing alarming statistics. 41% of male-identifying respondents, and 28% of female-identifying respondents have experienced physical violence within a same-sex relationship. Of these figures, approximately 25% reported that they have experienced sexual assault.

AIDS Council has identified domestic violence as a ‘silent epidemic’ in this community and our lawyers agree.  Unfortunately the barriers to accessing support services remains highly limited due to the following reasons:

  1. An inability to view intimate partner violence outside of a heterosexual framework;
  2. An assumption that partner violence in LGBTIQ relationships is mutual;
  3. Insensitivity / lack of awareness of this community;
  4. Discrimination from the wider community, in particular the criminal justice system and police; and
  5. Stigmas associated with these sexual preferences.

Whilst there are limited resources available to the public, we recommend anyone in a domestic violence situation who require support to contact www.anothercloset.com.au who provide a range of services specifically tailored to this area.

How we can help you

At Stone Group Lawyers, our family lawyers are passionate about all areas of family law and domestic violence. We endeavour to maintain up to date knowledge of the laws, resources and community access opportunities for our clients. We remain observant of the current issues in Queensland and will play our part in any improvement of the systems in place.

If you or anyone you know has experienced domestic violence, our lawyers are able to assist you whether or not you are in a heterosexual relationship or identify as LGBTIQ. We understand there may be deficiencies in the support services available, however it is important to our lawyers to be able to assist where they can.

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