youth
Intimate Partner Violence
Historically research on adolescent dating violence has focused primarily on heterosexual teens. However, a few studies have addressed the experiences of LGBT youth.
In a national sample of 117 adolescents who reported exclusively same-sex intimate relationships, 14.6 percent of males and 26 percent of females reported psychological violence, and 24 percent of males and 28 percent of females reported physical violence. Another study of 184 self-identified LGBT youth measured five types of violence: controlling behaviors, threats to physical safety, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse. Of the males, 43.6 percent had experienced at least one type of abuse from a same-sex partner, and 39.8 percent of the females reported experiencing at least one type of abuse from a same-sex partner. Controlling behaviors were the most common type of abuse, followed by emotional abuse. Those in same-sex relationships typically experience the same types of violence as those in opposite-sex relationships, but same-sex youth had the additional threat of having their sexual identity disclosed by their partner.
Results from the 2009 Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Survey reveal that LGBT youth in Wisconsin are at significantly greater risk of experiencing violence in their dating relationships. The 2009 YRBS sample of 2,430 includes 138 who report same-sex experiences, 1,255 who report only opposite-sex behaviors, and 1,027 students who report that they are not sexually active. Same-sex respondents comprise of 10% of the students who have had sexual contact, up from 8% found in YRBS 2007 analysis.
When asked about teen dating violence, 25.5% of same-sex youth responded that they were hit, slapped, or physically hurt on purpose by their boyfriend or girlfriend during the past 12 months compared to 10.9% of opposite-sex youth. Additionally, 35.2% of same-sex youth reported that they had been forced, either verbally or physically, to take part in a sexual activity – compared to 12.5% of opposite-sex youth.
There are several factors that put LGBT youth (ages 14-24) at higher risk:
• Lack of social venues other than bars and limited opportunities of pro-social rites of passage. LGBT youth need places to hang out that are safe and sufficiently supervised. In small communities and big cities alike, the process of going to the most common events like school dances, romantic dining, group dates, and family events quickly become complicated by social exclusion and group conflicts. The young person then needs to navigate additional challenges and may give up trying to figure out what rites of passage will work for them. Instead they develop more insolated relationship with few external supports that can guide healthy and relationship development.
• Lack of role modeling of positive, healthy relationships that are sanctioned by society. The public debate and fight for marriage equity or civil unions has sparked significant growth for LGBT people and others. However, the complex, innuendo-filled, and too frequently hateful language used about same-sex relationships during the public debate is rarely processed by LGBT youth with an adult ally. They are left to make of these expressions what they will. Further, for a variety of reasons, few LGBT youth can identify even a handful of adults in same-sex relationships.
• Lack of social norms about dating among LGBT youth. The commodification of dating and other relationships among heterosexuals is very apparent and viewed as normative. Television programs about dating and relationships, marriage and home-buying dominate cable networks. Ads for dating services show people what to do and how to act. As problematic as these rigid stereotypes are, they do present and reinforce normative dating and relationship behaviors. Few if any such images exist for LGBT youth. For young males and females alike, they are more likely to be eroticized than assisted in healthy development.
• Negative effects of internalized homophobia that perpetuate physical and sexual aggression between LGBT youth. Anti-gay discrimination leads everyone to believe negative things about LGBT organizations, communities, and individuals. No one is exempt. Thus, for both aggressors and victims there is wide-spread support for the feeling that someone or something needs to be punished or controlled.
LGBT youth are also less likely to access violence prevention education services that are created for straight youth because of anticipated or actual discrimination, bullying and non-acceptance that occurs within them. Schools and mainstream community-based programs have not tailored their programs to address the culture and language of LGBT youth, leaving LGBT youth with few outlets where they can receive culturally competent health information.
Even young adults who may want to access dating services are surprised by programs like eHarmony that openly discriminates with impunity against persons interested in same-sex partnerships.
