this post was submitted on 16 May 2025
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Witches VS Patriarchy
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Lesbians have the highest documented rates of domestic abuse and spouse homicide of any sex/gender pairing
And most of you will get angry at me for saying that
But none of you can deny it is true
I mean, to start with, throwing out a claim like that with no sources to back you up is not exactly arguing in good faith. It takes a lot more work to deny something when you're provided with exactly zero context on where or when this might be true (and it certainly isn't true in all countries at all times based on the data we have available).
There are some studies which suggest that lesbian couples do have a higher rate of domestic abuse. The CDC 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS), for example reported that:
But it concluded that:
This comes down to the fact that, as other commentors have alluded to, there are far fewer women overall in lesbian relationships compared with those in same-sex relationships. Even if the proportion of those suffering domestic abuse is slightly higher in lesbian relationships, there are far more women being abused in heterosexual relationships.
On top of this, it's important to remember that this percentage is from one survey undertaken in one country, and the reports that exist on lesbian spousal domestic abuse have statistics that vary wildly. The Wikipedia page on lesbian domestic abuse has a good summary of other difficulties in getting a clear picture of its prevalence:
With regards to homicide, there is again the issue of when/where, plus the lack of detailed statistics. But the chapter on Intimate Partner Homicide in the Routledge Handbook of Homicide Studies (available to download here suggests that the rate of lesbian spousal homicides is in fact the lowest compared to those in heterosexual and gay male relationships:
That's honestly all I have time to write right now. But in conclusion, no, what you're stating here isn't true, not at all.
It also needs to be said that the major assumption in the NISVS data is that individuals identifying as lesbian at the time of the study always identified as such and so the perpetrator being referenced couldn't be a man.