Making sense of discourses of sameness and difference in agency responses to abusive LGB and/or T partners

Catherine Donovan,Rebecca Barnes

doi:10.1177/1363460716665787

Abstract

The success of recent same-sex marriage campaigns worldwide arguably reflects a shift towards recognising parity between lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or trans (LGB and/or T) and heterosexual relationships, whereby LGB and/or T women and men are credited with the same needs and rights regarding intimacy and family life. This contrasts starkly with previous, and to some extent, continuing, discourses of difference, which either celebrate LGB and/or T distinctiveness, or conversely emphasise difference to preserve heterosexual privilege. This article explores how discourses of sameness and difference are reflected in interview data gathered from 23 practitioners who provide perpetrator interventions primarily for domestically violent and abusive heterosexual men. When reflecting on the suitability of these interventions for abusive LGB and/or T intimate partners, discourses of sameness dominated practitioners’ assumptions about the needs of LGB and/or T perpetrators. Our conclusions problematise this emphasis on sameness and argue that the development of interventions for abusive LGB and/or T intimate partners needs to be informed by more nuanced understandings of both difference and sameness within and across LGB and/or T and heterosexual people’s intimate relationships.

Highlights

Publisher's copyright statement: Catherine Donovan Rebecca Barnes (2019)
We have come a long way since the pioneering voices from within North America and the UK raised awareness about, and explored through research, the existence of domestic violence and abuse in, originally, lesbian and gay relationships
There has been very little work conducted from a sociological perspective, albeit with some notable exceptions (Barnes, 2008, 2013a, 2013b; Donovan and Hester, 2011a, 2011b, 2014; Ristock, 2002)

Summary

Introduction

Publisher's copyright statement: Catherine Donovan Rebecca Barnes (2019). Making sense of discourses of sameness and dierence in agency responses to abusive LGB and/or T partners. Each of the articles is attuned to the need for the continued academic development of this field of work through the identification of new agendas for research as well as on contributions to the better understanding of how domestic violence and abuse is conceptualised and connected to other social practices such as help-seeking, state violence, oppression, marginalisation and homo/bi/transphobia.

Results

Conclusion