I would be interested to know the title of the Victorian study you mention and the name of the peer-reviewed journal it was published in.

Like so many of the 'there is no patriarchy, women are as violent as men' crew you seem to miss the point that no proponent of the gendered violence model of IPV has ever said that only men are violent in intimate partnerships, or that IPV doesn't occur in same sex relationships. And yes, there is a need for more research into same sex IPV. But the reality remains that violence against women is overwhelming committed against them by men, and violence against men is also overwhelmingly committed by men.

Carz

Which men?

But if you are in a homosexual relationship, here is a website from the Victorian government that offers advice on what to do if you experience same sex domestic violence.

http://www.glhv.org.au/category/topic/domestic-violence

I have noted that they have Gay and Lesbian Liaison Officers in Victoria, which is rather different to heterosexual couples, who would get just any officer.

It seems rather special and elitist.

SURPRISE FINDING IN GAY QUEENSLAND RESEARCH

"A new Griffith University study has revealed that gay and lesbian people are more likely to experience major relationship problems with their partners rather than their family." http://qnews.com.au/article/surprise-finding-gay-queensland-research

Tell me about it.

It Townsville, in ARES Transport most of the women were Lesbians in the 80's. It was one constant turmoil of in-fighting amongst the Lesbian drivers. Woe-be-tide any girlfriend caught talking privately to a male driver or another girl. Baden-Clay face was nothing to compare it with the marks I've seen. In the Mess, after a few beers there would be some doozy punch-ups, clothes ripped off, hair pulled out. All very entertaining to us males.

Carz "you seem to miss the point that no proponent of the gendered violence model of IPV has ever said that only men are violent in intimate partnerships" But plenty have pushed the line that female violence against men is at such a low level that it can and should be ignored (and variations on that theme).

"But the reality remains that violence against women is overwhelming committed against them by men, and violence against men is also overwhelmingly committed by men."

Sort of true but phrased in a way that is likely to misrepresent the situation. Heavily impacted by the reality that violence against men is at far higher rates than violence against women. Generally a male is more likely to be assaulted by a female than he is to assault a female, on top of that is the far higher rates of being assaulted by other males.

Most of have strong social taboos against assaulting women and up to a point against defending ourselves from assaults by women.

I didn't like or see the need for the way the term toxic was used in the article. I don't see a case that lesbian relationships ar more toxic than others, higher levels of physical violence are to be expected wher you have two parties without a strong social taboo against the use of violence against a partner.

One of the discussions following a recent DV article on OLO provided links to material that demonstated a significant drop off in IPV perpetrated by men over the period that male initiated DV has been the subject of focused attention.

Those campaigns don't stop everyone but they do change views for many on whats acceptable. The need is to address all violence regardless of the gender or sexual orientation of the parties involved.

R0bert

A thoughtful article highlighting the least discussed domestic violence issues we have in our community.
Gay couples are just as susceptible to the same violence issues as any other couple.

Certainly, all anti-domestic violence campaigns in the media should address all forms of violence in our community, or some people may think it only involves men abusing women.

I would be wary of using the term "Intimate Partner Violence" though, because that would cut out mentioning our youngest victims (and perpetrators?) of domestic violence.....the children.