For Immediate Release July 23, 2003 ANNUAL REPORT ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
New York –
The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) today released its seventh annual report on domestic violence (DV) in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) relationships. The report contains information compiled during 2002 from 14 agencies that serve LGBT and HIV-affected victims of domestic violence in eleven regions around the country. There were three new reporting regions in this year's report: Pennsylvania, Burlington, Vermont and Tucson, Arizona. Programs contributing in both 2001 and 2002 were the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center's STOP Partner Abuse Program, the Colorado Anti-Violence Program, Horizons Anti-Violence Program in Chicago, OutFront Minnesota, the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, the Buckeye Region Anti-Violence Organization in Columbus, Ohio, as well as Community United Against Violence, WOMAN, Inc, and Asian Woman's Shelter, all in San Francisco and the Violence Recovery Program of Fenway Community Health and The Network/La Red, both in Boston. The report documents 5,092 cases of domestic violence.
There was a 2% decrease in reported incidents among the eight regions that participated in both the 2001 and 2002 reports. NCAVP staff remarked that though the 2% decrease in recorded cases is small, there are troubling reports of continued decreases in reporting at many of the local programs. This trend is attributed to ongoing decreases in funding and concordant staffing shortages and reduced outreach capacity. Beyond data on domestic violence cases, the report also includes survivors' stories, local program summaries, a summary of the expected effect of Lawrence v. Texas on the availability of Civil Court protective orders for LGBT people in states with sodomy laws, and an updated state-by-state analysis of the availability of such orders.
"We are very pleased to welcome the new participating regions and programs in this year's report," said Rachel Baum, MSW, NCAVP's Associate Director. "It shows that more communities are taking responsibility by recognizing that domestic violence occurs in LGBT relationships and are finding ways of addressing it," continued Baum. "The information we've received from the new participating regions, in addition to the fact that the program in Los Angeles created new partnerships and collected data from previously unheard-from jurisdictions, is encouraging. It means that in more areas more LGBT victims have options to help them find safety from abuse," concluded Baum.
"It is critically important that we continue to discuss the issue of domestic violence, raise awareness around it and work to reduce the isolation of victims," said Emily Pitt, NCAVP's Board Co-Chair and Coordinator of Fenway's Violence Recovery Program. "This report, illustrating the experiences of those surviving and sometimes not surviving domestic violence is a tool that we can use to continue discussions in LGBT communities," said Pitt.
"We are very encouraged by the larger number of LGBT youth reporting domestic violence," said Clarence Patton, NCAVP's Acting Executive Director. "We know that many young people experience high levels of violence in both the familial context, and in intimate relationships, however, historically this has not been addressed by many youth-serving or anti-violence organizations. In recent years, more of NCAVP's member agencies have created dedicated outreach programs for LGBT youth and begun collaborating with youth-serving organizations. The growing number of reports from young people in this report clearly underscores the success of that work," concluded Patton.
NCAVP's Domestic Violence reports are available for download on our Publications page.
The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs
Office: 212-714-1184, x55
NCAVP addresses the pervasive problem of violence committed against and within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and HIV-affected communities.
NCAVP is a coalition of programs that document and advocate for victims of anti-LGBT and anti-HIV/AIDS violence/harassment, domestic violence, sexual assault, police misconduct and other forms of victimization.
NCAVP is dedicated to creating a national response to the violence plaguing these communities. Further, NCAVP supports existing anti-violence organizations and emerging local programs in their efforts to document and prevent such violence.
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