It is possible that more that 90 percent of people affected by violence in homosexual relationships do not seek help from government-run support networks, Modern Women’s Foundation chief executive officer Fan Kuo-yung (范國勇) said at National Taiwan University in Taipei on Friday.
According to the WHO, intimate-partner violence is one of the most common forms of violence and includes physical, sexual and emotional abuse, as well as controlling behavior.
Fan, a former member of the Executive Yuan’s Gender Equality Committee, made the statement at a forum held by the foundation and the Taiwan LGBT Hotline Association, a non-profit advocacy group.
According to the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey conducted in 2010 by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Center for Injury Prevention and Control, respondents who identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual reported rates of violence at least as high as heterosexual respondents.
A survey conducted by the Modern Women’s Foundation and the hotline association in 2013 showed that intimate-partner violence among gay couples happens at a similar rate as among heterosexual couples.
A survey conducted by Academia Sinica in 2012 found that homosexuals in Taiwan make up more than 4.4 percent of the population, Fan said.
Last year, 64,058 cases of
intimate-partner violence among heterosexual couples were reported, Fan said.
Based on the assumption that the rate is similar among homosexuals, it can hypothesized that there were at least 2,000 cases of intimate-partner violence among homosexual couples that year, Fan said.
However, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said that only 63 cases of same-sex intimate partner violence were reported last year.
Based on those figures, more than 90 percent of homosexuals affected by intimate-partner violence do not seek help from government-run support networks, so there is a need to raise awareness about the issue in LGBT communities, he said.
Taiwan LGBT Hotline Association secretary-general Peng Chih-liu (彭治鏐) said that one form of intimate-partner violence unique to the homosexual population is the threat from abusive partners to “out” the other.
Forms of violence in lesbian and gay relationships differ from other types of relationships, Peng said.
Gays are more likely to stalk, harass and intimidate partners, while lesbians endure more verbal harassment from their partners, he said.
Such behavior shows that same-sex couples lack the social support to handle breakups properly, Peng said.
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