Lawyers Manual - Unified Court System

Notes
Domestic Violence in the LGBT Communities 411
1. The author would like to acknowledge the substantial contributions made
to this article by Virginia Goggin, a New York Law School student, whose
work made this article possible. Thanks also go to Jane A. Slater, a student
at Columbia Law School, for her help with research.
2. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (also referred to as “trans”)
communities can also be referred to as the “queer” community and include
people who identify as queer, questioning, two-spirited, gender variant,
genderqueer, bigendered, intergender, intersex, same gender loving, and/or
by any other terms that indicate self-definition of gender identity and/or
sexual orientation. For an excellent description of all of these terms, see Eli
Green’s “LGBTQI Terminology,” http://www.trans-academics.org/
LGBTQITerminology.pdf (last visited Apr. 5, 2006).
3. D. Dolan-Soto & S. Kaplan, New York Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and
Bisexual Domestic Violence Report, 2003-2004: A Report of the New York
City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, http://www.avp.org (last
visited May 1, 2006).
4. http://www.abanet.org/domviol/stats.html (last visited Apr. 5, 2006).
5. Id.
6. From “Sexual Assault in the Transgender Community,” an excerpt by
Arlene Istar Lev and S. Sundance Lev,
http://my.execpc.com/~dmmunson/Nov99_7.htm (last visited Apr. 5, 2006).
This may be due to societal transphobic responses to transgender people.
See, http://www.survivorproject.org/survivor.html (last visited Apr. 5, 2006).
7. This definition is found in the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-
Violence Project’s training materials entitled “Domestic Violence: Working
with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning people,” and
used with permission. Materials on file with the authors.
8. As further explained by the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence
Project, “LGTB abusers have some additional tools at their disposal;
heterosexism, homophobia, transphobia and biphobia. Heterosexism refers
to the presumption that heterosexual relationships are the ‘right,’ only or
preferred form of relationship. Homo/trans/bi-phobias refer to fear,
ignorance and hatred of LGTB persons. Heterosexism, as well as the other
phobias, can be exhibited or used by people of any sexual orientation or
gender identity. LGTB abusers use these biases and stigmas to convince