This report documents the first research conducted on violence and abuse in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transexual (LGBT) relationships in Sydney and the services and help that was accessed by those who experienced abuse.

Domestic violence is a major health concern for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities. It has been argued that domestic violence is the third most severe health problem for gay men, following HIV/AIDS and substance abuse. A recent large scale Australian study - Private Lives: A report on the health and wellbeing of GLBTI Australians, investigated the level of ‘intimate partner abuse’ in same sex relationships and found that 32.7% of respondents had experienced violence or abuse. Overseas studies have attempted to determine the nature and extent of same sex domestic violence (SSDV), but at the time of conducting this survey no major original Australian research had been conducted.

Prior to this report, the main body of data available on SSDV had been collected from service providers. To address the lack of available data, the Same Sex Domestic Violence Interagency Working Group (SSDV WG) undertook a quantitative study of the prevalence and types of violence and abuse in relationships in Sydney’s gay and lesbian communities. Further, the research aimed to examine the types of support that respondents who had experienced domestic violence sought.