Men’s Health Information and Resource Centre

ACON: Another Closet - Domestic Violence In Gay & Lesbian Relationships

ACON SSDV ACON provides resources that raise the profile of domestic violence in same-sex relationships through the Another Closet campaign.

"Considerable work is needed to enable services to become ready and able to handle SSDV..."

Domestic violence in same-sex couples (SSDV) is an aspect of men's health that receives little focus but it is an important issue. The dynamics of power and control in same-sex relationships go largely unexplored and the Another Closet campaign provides resources that help to shed light on this issue.

Gap Analysis Of Services Dealing With SSDV

ACON conducted research that examined the readiness of services to deal with violence in same sex partners. The research showed that there considerable work needed to enable services to become ready and able to handle SSDV and that there are a variety of barriers to enabling better service including a lack of specific knowledge of what constitutes SSDV, managing interactions between clients, police, family and legal agencies, and being able to evaluate success in the context of same-sex clients.

The report provides recommendations in a number of areas that are useful to enable services to develop an approach that is better able to meet the needs of same-sex couples and domestic violence situations.

Factsheet On The Occurrence Of Violence In GBLTI Relationships

This report provides a useful overview on the occurrence of DV in same-sex relationships. The reported types of abuse, in descending order from most to least frequent, are

  • controlling-jealous behaviour (47.7%)
  • humiliation (45.1%)
  • physical abuse (34.4%)
  • social isolation (30.8%)
  • financial control(17.8%)
  • sexual abuse (16.8%)
  • outing (16.8%)

While the report covers males and females, it offers a useful perspective for services on the issue of violence among gay men.

Advice To Promote Engagement Of Same-Sex People Into Services

This resource provides a useful checklist for engaging same-sex people into services and follows similar principles to advice to engage men in health services generally. Please visit the Engaging Gay Men In Services  profile for more details.


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