According to a new American study, nearly half of homosexuals have already been victims of emotional or physical abuse within their relationship.
Domestic violence does not only affect heterosexual couples and women are not the only victims. Half of gay men are also subjected to abuse of all kinds within their relationship. This is the conclusion ofa new American study published this month in the review American Journal of Men’s Health, the first to be interested in violence within male homosexual couples.
Among the 320 men followed (160 couples) in 2018 by the University of Michigan, 46% reported having experienced some form of violence in their relationship in the previous year, whether it was emotional abuse or physical. “If you just look at physical and sexual violence in male couples, it is between 25 and 30%, or about the same as in women,” explains Rob Stephenson, director of the Center on Sexual and Medical Disparities. “We are stuck with the mental portrayal of domestic violence perpetrated by a male executioner on a female victim. Even if it does exist, there are other forms of domestic violence in all types of relationships,” he explains. he.
Also, these results are game-changing because they go against stereotypes, most studies on spousal violence tending to be carried out from the point of view of the woman in a heterosexual couple. Moreover, for once, the University of Michigan does not only take into account physical violence but also abusive behavior, which isolates, humiliates or controls the partner.
An even more taboo subject in France
Here, we see that violence in same-sex couples joins AIDS prevention because men stuck in abusive relationships often struggle to negotiate condom use and decide how often and whether they have sex, says Stephenson. Finally, this study establishes a strong link between the refusal of homosexuality and violence. Indeed, a gay man who will find it difficult to assume his sexual identity may attack his partner in a violent way physically or emotionally to release the pressure. In the same way as, in a heterosexual couple, it happens that an unemployed man lets off steam on his wife because he cannot manage his frustration and his feeling of helplessness.
That’s why Stephenson would like doctors to start asking questions about violence against male couples. But if the specialist finds the subject taboo across the Atlantic, it is already much more mentioned than in France. Indeed, there is no national and reliable study on the subject and LGBT associations avoid commenting on the issue. Few years ago, a canadian study had established that 15% of gays and lesbians would have been victims of domestic violence against 7% of heterosexuals during the year 2004. According to the specialized site rezosante.org, it is even the third leading cause of health problems in gay men after HIV and drugs. In France, however, we are silent.
According to Elodie Brun, LGPM coordinator (Lesbian and Gay Pride Montpellier), interviewed by Slate at the end of 2012 in one of the rare articles on the subject, “LGBT associations are afraid to reactivate clichés, like that of the lesbian trucker. They do not wish to give their detractors anything to grind.”
Moreover, “filing a complaint for domestic violence is quite difficult for a homosexual. In fact, in certain cases, there is the fear of ridicule, the fear of having to admit one’s homosexuality in front of strangers, of not being taken seriously. Others are afraid that this will be known and that their sexuality will be discovered by their relatives or even in their community. Sometimes even, some homosexuals experience couples’ relationships considered as their only romantic landmark in society, because they live far from all LGBT ties, do not hang out with anyone other than their spouse. So they are afraid of having to leave all this and find themselves deprived of benchmarks in a society where it is not always easy to be a member of the LGBT community ” , explained Slate.
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