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Debunking Lesbian Domestic Violence Data (i.redd.it)

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[–]Subtle_Shiver 272 points273 points  (44 children)

I've never had any sort of perception that lesbians were more likely to either be victims or perpetrators of domestic abuse.

I am rather surprised about the gay male statistic though. I wonder what sorts of social or psychological causes lead to this phenomenon

[–]anjy92 132 points133 points  (13 children)

I read the thing for lesbians somewhere on reddit, thought it sounded off

[–]Ok_Profile175 207 points208 points  (0 children)

The only study that they like to bring up, asked if the women had experienced ANY domestic violence in their lifetime but did NOT ask the gender of the perpetrator of that violence.

Its a bunked study that only an idiot manosphere mouth piece would cite.

[–]archiecstll 154 points155 points  (0 children)

I peek into the MRA subreddits on occasion to see what the latest drivel is. The “lesbian relationships have the highest rates of DV” is s common trope to argue that women are just as likely to be the instigator of it as men.

[–]AccidentPuzzled5891 50 points51 points  (1 child)

It is a VERY common talking point of misogynists to claim that women are more violent than men

[–]Dostoevskaya 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Which is straight up idiocy. DV statistics are easy to get into the weeds with, but murder statistics are not. You are almost 10x more likely to be murdered by a man than a woman. At least according to the FBI.

[–]MLeek 93 points94 points  (1 child)

I can't go find it atm, but the study that usually got thrown around about lesbians and violence had to do with lifetime incidents of sexual abuse and DV. It didn't ask the gender of the perpetrator or about the current relationship they were in.

Minority/non-confirming queer women being a bit more likely to experience abuse, then hetriosexual woman, should not have been a shocking finding.

[–]Subtle_Shiver 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Abuse, or otherwise lack of social support for their identity definitely could affect a study results.

That's a good point though; Ina study if women identifying as lesbians were reporting abuse outside of their relationship/maybe even from a male perpetrator that could definitely skew study conclusions if the statistic is not accurately developed.

That's the great thing about our pop-science. Chasing headlines so headline makers and craft their own conclusions

[–]AkaruiNoHito 25 points26 points  (0 children)

When you look at the actual numbers, it's actually a statistic that lesbian and bisexual women are more likely to be victimized by their partners in their lifetime, and the perpetrators are usually men.

It's actually a statistic that proves that queer women are victims of violence, not perpetrators.

[–]locksymania 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I think it can be a function of what is defined as "abuse", but, in a shocker that'll shock no-one, the manosphere is full of aul shite.

[–]Ok-disaster2022 15 points16 points  (1 child)

I remember reasons the same thing and it really made no sense except for maybe a population bias. Since lesbians are already a small minority, any reported lesbian violence would skew that data more than the general population. 

But basically if you look at the stars for the number if abusive women and the number of lesbian women it would make since the number if abusive lesbian women would be smaller

[–]life-uh-finds-a-way_ 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The study looked at them over the course of their lives, so it included any abuse from previous relationships with men.

[–]Palabaster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a complex thing to address. I didn't think these studies claiming high or low rates answer the question, and i doubt abuse is more common for lesbian relationships. 

 For one thing this amab person here doesn't want to contribute to false impressions about lesbian relationships. Do lesbians have more or less abuse? I have not found a study that gives me confidence in its conclusion.

  1. A study about reported crime will miss a lot of harm in marginalized communities

  2. Unless "experienced harm in a relationship" specifies which relationship, confounding variables (like a lesbian woman abused young, or dating men at first because the overculture directs that and experiencing DV from a man) will make the measurement prone to abuse

  3. It's difficult to get numbers on marginalized relationship statistics, so we are left with anecdotes.

I know some anecdotes, but that's only evidence of anecdotes. A woman I know experienced serial abusive relationships and only wants to date non-men folks now. 

Another wants to move countries because of what they call stalking and abuse by a partner (as in the job losing, community losing manipulation).

Another woman i know is happily married to a woman in a blended family.

In some ways these anecdotes cover all the possibilities. I would say that reading details of any study claiming answers is a step towards clarity... But there just aren't great studies I have found. And the idea of scholarly study answering this seems oversimplified.

[–]diracpointless 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It looks to me like a manipulation of data to tell a certain story.

If 3.4% of lesbians experience DV, and only 2.8% of straight men do, then technically lesbians are more likely to commit DV than straight women.

Of course, that's a very selective stat to take. And everything OP has provided tells a much clearer story.

[–]hellolovely1 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I saw that too and was dubious.

[–]unhiddenninja 78 points79 points  (3 children)

I've never had any sort of perception that lesbians were more likely to either be victims or perpetrators of domestic abuse.

I made a comment on a thread yesterday telling women that for the sake of their lives they should divorce their conservative husbands, there were droves of comments about lesbians getting more divorces and committing more DV. Of course they were all liars, but the amount of people saying it was still shocking.

[–]Quinjet 32 points33 points  (1 child)

They find lesbian existence to be threatening.

[–]unhiddenninja 12 points13 points  (0 children)

They're just so incredibly self centered that they believe any decision made in proximity to them is directly related to them. They want literally all recognition to go directly to them.

Women are lesbians? It's specifically to take women away from them. Or for their attention. You can extrapolate this logic to anything they're vocal about.

Someone on welfare? It's specifically to take their money away from them. Or for attention.

A black person exists? It's specifically to shame them for being white. Or to get attention.

It's exhausting.

[–]Subtle_Shiver 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Everyone has a motive for what they say.

Gay men are more easily demonized by virtue of being men. Applying a completely unfactual statistic to lesbian relationships is likely an attempt to demoize their homosexuality on par with that of gay men relationships.

[–]FillMySoupDumpling 17 points18 points  (0 children)

It’s a right wing talking point they keep bringing up. If you hear it from someone , you know instantly what kind of person they are

[–]ramesesbolton 20 points21 points  (6 children)

my guess re: the gay male statistic is that gay men have more sexual partners on average. then it's just a numbers game. more partners = more opportunities that you'll come across someone who's physically abusive

[–]AccidentPuzzled5891 7 points8 points  (4 children)

also internalized homophobia maybe?

[–]ramesesbolton 3 points4 points  (3 children)

could be... but if that were the case wouldn't we expect lesbians to also have somewhat higher rates as well?

[–]AccidentPuzzled5891 17 points18 points  (2 children)

I feel like lesbians are less taught to hate themselves and are more hated by men. I dont really see „I cant do xyz because it would be gay“ as a huge part of female culture but it‘s like a giant part of male culture

[–]Anticode 12 points13 points  (1 child)

I've had a couple of gay friends confide in me that while it was easier to "get action" as a gay man (compared to heterosexuals of either gender, but especially a man like myself), it's an ongoing struggle for him to form/find functional or meaningful romantic relationships because (to quote): "gay men are kinda psychologically messed up due to growing up as a gay man".

Neither of them seemed particularly sad about this, they seemed tired or frustrated as if it was just a fact of life. Which is even more sad, I feel.

For instance they might go on an excellent date with another gay man only to discover that the guy is actually closeted, and that the whole "date" was basically just a fantasy he's now ashamed of - and therefore never calls back again or lashes out violently following an unlikely second meeting. (...Or has a wife.)

Or if a seemingly good relationship began to bloom, he might unexpectedly find his almost-boyfriend now super cold/mean due to things "feeling too gay" - and then they break up, because this guy grew up with "no son of mine" kind of parents and hasn't figured out how to deal with it yet. Two weeks later, that guy texts again as if nothing happened, but then a month onward "blows up" randomly for the same reason.

One thing that stuck with me was that he said I should feel lucky for being attracted to women. Years later I'd start participating more deeply in "feminist communities" and quickly understood what he meant. I started to feel lucky too.

[–]ramesesbolton 10 points11 points  (0 children)

this is anecdotal but I have a lot of queer people in my social circles so it's a large sample size: I've found that the gay men in my life go one of two ways: long, long term committed relationships with a house and maybe a kid or single and hooking up every weekend. there's no in between. the lesbians I know, on the other hand, are all very relationship-oriented.

what's interesting about it, though, is that the married gay men I know are much more into the "traditional" trappings of married life (house and kids) whereas the lesbian couples I know tend to lean into hobbies and alternative lifestyles more. again, this is just the people I know but it's an interesting trend.

[–]Subtle_Shiver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is a good point

[–]night-shark 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Gay man, here.

At least among many of the people I know, there's way less stigma among gay guys when it comes to reporting abuse than exists with straight men, so I strongly suspect that is affecting those numbers, too. I don't know if or how these studies would control for that but there it is.

[–]Subtle_Shiver 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Your perspective bring nuance I didn't think about;

Whether the worst part of the statistic is straight men under reporting.

[–][deleted]  (1 child)

[removed]

    [–]TwoXChromosomes-ModTeam[M] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

    Your contribution has been removed because it uses “Male” or “Female” to describe/in response to a gender based issue. This is to prevent lumping together trans women, trans men, non-binary, agender, gender-fluid, etc with men or women.

    [–]r3volver_Oshawott 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    It's a common misconception that supposedly was drawn from data, but I saw it trotted out specifically on men's subreddits a lot

    *the caveat to it, iirc, was that it just asked if they experienced ANY domestic violence, and the general consensus was that lesbians were more likely to experience domestic violence, but most often at the hands of men they had dated, and 'men's rights activist' redditors who were 'concerned' about domestic violence were sort of concealing and/or missing that part

    **but genuinely, it's not a claim you see anywhere south of MRA (men's rights activist) communities, and they do it to claim there's no gendered bias for domestic violence, the idea that lesbians would brutalize each other at these insane rates make misogynists look good in data

    [–][deleted]  (2 children)

    [removed]

      [–]TwoXChromosomes-ModTeam[M] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      Your contribution has been removed because it tactlessly generalises gender.

      [–]Helpful_Cell9152 5 points6 points  (9 children)

      I’m not surprised at all about the gay male stats. In my experience men see fighting differently than women do. They play fight often & due to the whole toxic masculinity thing, they fight often to solve problems, avoid feelings etc. I can see them getting into an argument, one saying something bold and both or one deciding to fight it out.

      I also did think the same of lesbians but for a different reason: might see each other as equals & if they’re prone to fighting then it wouldn’t surprise me if it showed up in the relationship. Personally, I’m not fighting unless to defend my life & avoid injury but I know women that deal with things by fighting & it wouldn’t surprise me to know they hit their partners.

      [–]ThatLilAvocado 37 points38 points  (5 children)

      Domestic violence is rarely a "fight". Usually one partner is violent and the other is victimized.

      [–]UnderstandingClean33 4 points5 points  (0 children)

      People don't understand the difference between Domestic violence and Situational violence. Women are more prone to situational violence which takes into account any level of violence in a relationship for any amount of time, any reason, any severity and any amount of instances. So a woman slapping her boyfriend because he gave her an STI is treated the same as a man who broke his girlfriend's wrist because she didn't do the dishes right. DV is an ongoing pattern of abuse and involves a power dynamic between the couple. DV happens to men 1/3 of the time, 2/3 to women.

      Edit: To clarify if someone gives you an STI you just break up with them. I tried using examples where people were being shitty people instead of using an example of reactive violence which is a whole other facet of DV.

      [–]Helpful_Cell9152 -1 points0 points  (3 children)

      I agree with what you’re saying, most are, but also it can be a fight & because of the conditioning even the male victim can believe fighting to be a reasonable reaction. I’m referring to same sex relationships here where the assumption is they’re more equal than the average hetero couple. Not always and there’s exceptions ofc due to disabilities.

      [–]ThatLilAvocado 1 point2 points  (2 children)

      I would say more equal in theory only. The thing is people who beat their romantic partners are almost always the kind to enjoy control over others. Their goal isn't conflict resolution, they want to beat others down into submission. That's why they look for partners who are vulnerable out of the bat.

      Don't get me wrong, your reasoning makes sense from a pure theoretical point of view. But that's just not how it goes down in reality.

      [–]Helpful_Cell9152 1 point2 points  (1 child)

      It does though. I’ve seen it in my own family. Aggressive ppl partnering with aggressive people. It starts as verbal (disrespectful convo), then they’re fighting, then making up. Sometimes ppl use fighting instead of words & unfortunately they find similar people and they both hurt each other.

      I am still completely onboard with you that the bulk is a victimizer & a victim, but there is a small group that are equals & resort to violence instead of talking calmly. I’ve seen it with my eyes. I don’t support it and see it as unhealthy & detrimental to their offspring/others. Not all DV cases are compromised the same way.

      [–]ThatLilAvocado 1 point2 points  (0 children)

      I've never seen or heard about it. But I've seen people characterizing women's defensive violence as "bidirectional IPV" to excuse men.

      [–]Subtle_Shiver 4 points5 points  (2 children)

      For me, from my non gay male perspective, I viewed that statistic as an indicator of more prevalent predator types preying on gay men (regardless of whether or not the perpetrator is repressed or gay themselves). My assumption was less to do with male dispute resolution styles and more literally about like perpetrators

      It is curious to think about though, and good to challenge our assumptions and learn from other perspectives

      [–]AccidentPuzzled5891 2 points3 points  (0 children)

      I assume theres also a lot of internalized homophobia that would put gay men at risk. Like how trans women are at risk of being killed by their partners if those are transphobic and feel ashamed of their feelings. Theyre basically blaming the other person for awakening those feelings in them and dont want to be confronted with those feelings anymore

      [–]Helpful_Cell9152 1 point2 points  (0 children)

      I didn’t even think about that, I think because DV to me makes me instantly think of a romantic or sexual relationship but I know that’s not actually the definition so thank you for sharing.

      [–]naf165 97 points98 points  (15 children)

      Worth noting that the stats cited in your screenshot and the first half of your post are cherry picked by the article and misrepresentative.

      ONS (the source the article uses but does not cite or link to) publishes their data for each year and you can look at the stats yourself: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/domesticabuseprevalenceandvictimcharacteristicsappendixtables

      The tabloid article you cite that references their data exclusively references the 2024 dataset which is the only year where gay women have a lower rate than hetero women. If you look at the data across all the other years, this number is very clearly an outlier, with lesbian rates usually falling between 8-15% and almost always nearly equal with gay men.

      In 2019, the lesbian rate was 10.2% compared to 7.3% of hetero women, 3.7% of hetero men, and 5.1% of gay men. (and 12/17 for bi women/men)

      In 2025, the lesbian rate was 13.0% compared to 8.4% of hetero women, 5.9% of hetero men, and 15.5% of gay men.

      If you average the rates across multiple years, we see a clear pattern. Hetero men/women are about 40% less than gay men/women which are usually about 60% less than bisexual men/women.

      This reinforces the data from the CDC study, and also from the other report you cite later, which asserts that young people have the highest rates. But also we see a very consistent pattern, bisexual people, of all genders, have shockingly higher rates than both gay and hetero populations.

      If we take the ONS data across all years, the rates from highest to lowest are: Bi Women -> Bi Men -> Gay Women -> Gay Men -> Hetero Women -> Hetero Men

      I don't know how the ONS gathers their data, what the impact of under/over reporting is, or any other factors that might impact this data, but we should be clear about what the data actually says.

      [–]ChopsticksImmortal 9 points10 points  (2 children)

      Appreciate the comment.

      I wonder if anyone has done studies on the difference in severity? Based on this new information, my expectation is that female domestic violence may be more common but less severe (slaps, non bone breaking punches, scratches), while male domestic violence may be less common but more severe, based on strength and mass.

      [–]TearMuted8403 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      It's not lower among gay men. At least from the recent years. From what I found from the link there were a total 7 years.

      2023: Lesbian – 7.3%, Gay men – 7.9% 2024: Lesbian – 3.4%, Gay men – 7.6% 2025: Lesbian – 13.0%, Gay men – 15.5%

      They didn’t gave the number by sexual orientations in 2022. Also from what commenter said it was higher in 2019. I personally couldn’t find those data from the link. But it might be higher among lesbians in earlier dataset. 

      [–]naf165 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      I don't have any data with me, so take this with a grain of salt, but as I recall from studies I've read prior, men tend to have higher physical intensity on average for reported abuses.

      Also, I don't know if there's any research into if that would be because: higher T levels cause men to be more violent, men tend to do more damage with the same levels of exertion due to the strength difference, men are socialized to expect a higher level of physical roughhousing growing up, or some other reason.

      [–]catievirtuesimp -5 points-4 points  (1 child)

      bi women are mostly abused by men. did u not read the study?

      [–]naf165 6 points7 points  (0 children)

      bi women are mostly abused by men. did u not read the study?

      This reply has nothing to do with anything I wrote. I did not make a claim in any direction about that. I didn't even bring it up as a topic.

      Lowkey, you should be embarrassed to have posted this as a reply.

      [–]catievirtuesimp 203 points204 points  (6 children)

      Losers have been bringing up this dv stat to justify the killing of Renee Good who had a lesbian partner. They say this shit with their whole chest too. smh

      [–]GingerIsTheBestSpice 39 points40 points  (0 children)

      What the heck does that have to do with the price of fish?? Goodness.

      [–]BeardManMichael 9 points10 points  (0 children)

      I am so glad I have a functioning brain so that I can dodge all that toxic stupidity.

      [–]SilverConversation19 -3 points-2 points  (3 children)

      So when you say she had a lesbian partner, not, was in a lesbian relationship, you’re actually perpetuating the erasure of her sexuality. She was an active party in her own relationship.

      [–]Additional_One_6178 -1 points0 points  (2 children)

      Holy pedantry

      [–]SilverConversation19 0 points1 point  (1 child)

      Are you a lesbian? No? Maybe don’t chime in then.

      [–]Usernamerequired_92 8 points9 points  (5 children)

      That study doesn't show that heterosexual women experience more IPV than bisexual women, it doesn't even mention bisexual women as a group. Studies that control for age still find that bisexual women still experience more IPV. And what you left out of this conversation is that bisexual men, who mostly date women, experience more IPV(37%) than gay men but also heterosexual women. And thats because dating men is not the only risk factor. Queer people experience more sexual violence largely because they are more marginalized. Minority stress, poor mental health, poverty, internalized homophobia, alcohol abuse are factors that increase the risk of IPV and sexual assault. And those risk factors are typically higher in bisexual people then gay men and lesbian women, which could explain why they experience more IPV. Also negative stereotypes of bisexual people play a roll in this as well, specifically how bisexuals are perceived as being dishonest, disloyal and promiscuous. Also, compared to heterosexual people, homosexual and bisexual people also face the issue of corrective rape.

      [–]catievirtuesimp 3 points4 points  (1 child)

      bi women experience most of the dv from men. did u even read the study?

      [–]Usernamerequired_92 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      Bisexual women mostly date men which is worth considering. Because the percentage of IPV is comparable to the percentage of bisexual women that date women. But the strongest correlating factor here isnt men, its bisexuality.

      [–]TearMuted8403 0 points1 point  (2 children)

      Please read it again. Nowhere I said that studies show heterosexual women experience more IPV than bi women. Also 78.5% bi men said their perpetrators were female. If you do the math it comes down to 29.3% only female perpetrated. Very similar to heterosexual men

      [–]Usernamerequired_92 0 points1 point  (1 child)

      You said that if hetrosexual women were examined at the same age as bisexual women or lesbians their IPV rates would be the same or higher. But studies that control for age don't come to that conclusion.

      [–]TearMuted8403 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      Bisexual women mostly (89%) experience intimate partner violence in heterosexual relationships (54.7%). This suggests that straight women are largely underreporting. Also, the study I mentioned states that younger people report more IPV in general. That could be the only explanation for this phenomenon. The study didn’t explicitly state this; it’s just a conclusion I reached from my own analysis.

      [–]Prestigious_Rip_289 56 points57 points  (0 children)

      As a lesbian, thank you for this excellent thread and the thorough debunking of that insidious bullshit. 

      [–]SedemTBH 5 points6 points  (0 children)

      I mean, which gender is in prison more for harming women and children? We didn't need all this to debunk that. I just laugh at them everytime they bring it up, what a major cope.

      [–]CaptainPotaytorz 7 points8 points  (0 children)

      Even that one study that every manlet refers to is opposed to their views.

      They cherrypick the word "abuse" and "lesbian" in a sentence as their AH-HA, even though their study clearly states that it refers to the abuse they've experienced in their lifetime.

      Like how is it shocking to anyone that lgbt folks have faced more abuse in their lifetime?

      [–]playerkei 19 points20 points  (0 children)

      6.3% seems low. That's good though

      [–]Ok-disaster2022 38 points39 points  (0 children)

      I mean if you acknowledge that men are already significantly more likely than women to abuse their partner it makes sense that two women in a relationship have significantly lower risk of abuse without the relationship that's just stats 101. Squaring a small number makes it smaller. 

      [–]Zentavius 24 points25 points  (0 children)

      Don't the arguments use data that spanned their life experience. So women who entered lesbian relationships after DV from a man counted as lesbians experiencing DV? I'm sure I read that somewhere. It's always a specific type of account trying to cite these figures out of context, too. The venn diagram between them, MAGAs, Reform supporters, and incels are very close to a perfect circle.

      [–]ProtectHarryDresden 10 points11 points  (1 child)

      Thank you for breaking this down! I used to see this argument quite a lot in the MGTOW circles where they love to pretend women are "incapable of love" and other such bs. I always had a hunch it wasn't true but never had the skills or time to check for myself.

      [–]AccidentPuzzled5891 7 points8 points  (0 children)

      I still see it a lot

      [–]Overall_Lobster823 3 points4 points  (0 children)

      Common denominator: men

      [–]Digirati99 2 points3 points  (0 children)

      I’ve been saying this for a while now. Thanks for posting.

      [–]Cieletoilee 6 points7 points  (2 children)

      Thank you 

      [–]Cieletoilee 7 points8 points  (1 child)

      👋 Hi incels downvoting my non problematic post lmao 🤭

      [–]Taking Up SpaceMaverisStranger 5 points6 points  (0 children)

      Incels hate facts.

      [–]bifircated_nipple 1 point2 points  (0 children)

      There needs to be alot more data. This belief well predates the manosphere

      [–]himmygal -4 points-3 points  (2 children)

      I've never seen anyone claim that domestic abuse is more common amongst lesbian couples. But I have seen data that lesbian marriages are much more likely to end in divorce than hetro marriages or marriages between gay men.

      [–]Im-A-Kitty-Cat 30 points31 points  (0 children)

      This has been going for years. It was very common when I first joined Reddit(about ten years ago, which was peak gamergate) but it has declined in recent years, admittedly. I do still see it occasionally, but more frequently I have seen it being argued against as a misinterpretation of statistics.

      [–]WrenSol 0 points1 point  (7 children)

      I only looked through your first two sources, but I think they are quite misleading.

      It's true that the 2024 edition of CSEW says that lesbians are less likely to experience domestic abuse compared to straight women, but both the 2025 and 2023 editions say that lesbians are more likely to experience domestic abuse compared to straight women. I don't think CSEW statistics are particularly reliable or useful, and they even caution against drawing any conclusions from these stats, but if you think the 2024 edition is good evidence, then the 2025 and 2023 editions combined must be even better evidence. Source: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/domesticabuseprevalenceandvictimcharacteristicsappendixtables

      The paywalled paper by Hubbell JT. you cite doesn't say that age explains all or even most of the difference in IPV rates between lesbian and straight women. Even after controlling for age, the paper says that lesbian women are significantly more likely to experience IPV. You can see that in this table: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Elucidating-Intimate-Partner-Violence-Rate-Between-Hubbell/627995ce8fd42f8c5b9c20d5495ead7de3b91c50/figure/1 (or DM me for the full paper)

      I might look at the rest later if I have time.

      [–]TearMuted8403 0 points1 point  (1 child)

      I delated my previous replies bcoz I commented without checking those years you mentioned. But still it isn’t highest among lesbians. From recent years the data shows.  2023: Lesbian – 7.3%, Gay men – 7.9% 2024: Lesbian – 3.4%, Gay men – 7.6% 2025: Lesbian – 13.0%, Gay men – 15.5%

      Most of the studies shows bisexuals reporting more DV than lesbian or gay men. But they are mostly likely to report DV from heterosexual relationship. 

      Also the second study gave an insight about how age can affect this. It was based on 2016 police reported data. It didn’t gave any clear picture for the severity rates according to many police reported data I review before lesbians had lower severity rate overall but gay men had the highest. Most gay people  cohabited and lived in city so they were more likely to be able to report. The data also largely varies based on the studies. I included it since it can explain why in some studies lesbians might be more likely to report IPV.

      [–]WrenSol 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      I thought we agreed that partner abuse was a better statistic to look at than domestic abuse so that the statistics are not affected by abuse by family members such as parents and siblings. If you had looked at partner abuse, your numbers would have been: 2023: Lesbian – 5.4%, Gay men – 4.7% | 2024: Lesbian – 2.1%, Gay men – 3.6% | 2025: Lesbian – 9.8%, Gay men – 9.6%.

      It seems like gay men are a lot more likely to report abuse by family members, but if we exclude that, we get the same result when comparing lesbian women with straight women as when comparing lesbian women with gay men. I.e. Lesbian women are more likely than straight women and gay men to report having been abused by a partner in 2023 and 2025, but less likely in 2024.

      The second study is clear about age not explaining the all of the gap. Even when adjusting for age, it found more IPV for lesbian women. I don't think police reported severity rates can be reliable at all. There is way to much risk that police is affected by sexism or homophobia and related norms.