Finding Our Voice, Sharing Our Vision
Ending Violence Against Women and Children
WORKING TOWARDS EQUALITY: RESPONDING TO SEXUAL MINORITY DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
December 2, 2005
8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Holiday Inn Conference Center
25425 SW 95th Avenue
Wilsonville, OR
Phone - (503) 682-2211
Fax - (503) 682-5596
Training for judges, attorneys, law enforcement, community corrections, victim advocates, treatment providers,
health care professionals.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM WORKING TOWARDS EQUALITY: RESPONDING TO SEXUAL MINORITY DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Domestic violence occurs in sexual and gender minority relationships just as it does heterosexual relationships,
but it is much more underreported and much less understood.
December 2, 2005 marked what will hopefully be the first annual Oregon conference to address the unique
difficulties and obstacles faced by sexual minority domestic violence victims when interfacing with the criminal
justice system. The conference was co-sponsored by the following five groups: Domestic Violence Intervention Council,
Western Community Policing Institute, Washington County Circuit Court, The Williams Project and Voices Set Free.
This conference explored the disparity described above and discussed ways to improve community response to domestic
violence in gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender relationships, including youth and elder relationships.
Organizers of this conference assembled a team of experts who covered a wide array of topics.
The morning started off with a warm welcome from Portland’s Mayor Tom Potter, followed by a keynote presentation
from Gary Gates and R. Bradley Sears from the Williams Project of the UCLA School of Law. The Williams Project
is a research organization designed to employ empirical analyses to further the understanding of sexuality-related
policy issues. To provide fuller understanding of sexual minorities in Oregon, these presenters discussed the
demographics of Oregon’s sexual minority population and profiled the significant national gay rights legal cases
of the past quarter century. They emphasized ways in which census analyses can inform many important policy debates
including marriage rights, military service and retirement/social security issues.
Loree Cook-Daniels from the American Society of Adult Abuse Professionals and Survivors also discussed sexual
minority domestic violence. Participants heard a detailed discussion about the various implications of being
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual or Transgender (GLBT) in the US, such as marriage, military service, mental health providers,
housing and raising children just to name a few.
In the afternoon, Shelagh Johnson (Youth HIV Prevention Coordinator for Cascade AIDS Project) and Jonathan
Weedman (Program Manager/Counselor for Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare) spoke on the issues facing youth today. This
presentation focused on the difficulty LGBT people face when they are put into situations where they have to defend
their sexuality. The presenters shared tools to help non-gay people understand how it feels to be placed in such
a situation and gave ideas for ways to be an ally to the GLBT community.
Another presentation featured a panel of law enforcement experts including Jim Fun
(Senior Deputy District Attorney for Washington County), Officer Jason Jones (Portland Police Bureau Domestic
Violence Reduction Unit) and Delena Couchman (Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center's STOP Partner Abuse/DV Program).
Mr. Fun’s presentation gave the audience information about a specific domestic violence and elder abuse case in
the sexual minority community and encouraged a collaborative multidisciplinary approach for the following reasons:
enforces mandatory reporting, encourages the victim to seek police and court involvement, promotes extended family
involvement and can provide the elderly victim with shelter alternatives. Officer Jones continued on the theme of
collaboration with a detailed overview of Portland Police Bureau's Family Services Division (FSD). FSD works to
reduce crime, violence and victimization in families, including domestic relationships, children and the elderly,
through criminal investigations, law enforcement, victim assistance and community partnerships. The Domestic
Violence Reduction Unit (DVRU) is a critical component of FSD. DVRU’s primary functions include stopping and
preventing violence, ensuring victim safety and holding offenders accountable. DVRU strategically integrates
community-based (civilian) advocates and interfaces with other community organizations to achieve these goals.
Loree Cook-Daniels shared her knowledge this time on the topic of Sexual Violence in the Transgendered
Community. GLBT organizers and service providers often report that there are no transgender-specific resources
available on DV or sexual assault. Despite the fact that there has not been much research conducted or published
on DV occurrences in the transgendered community, yet there are many consumer-generated resources available. These
service providers are able to tell us many things about working with this community. Loree gave concrete examples
of additional power and control tactics that are often used against transgender victims by abusers and ideas for how
programs can take steps to determine whether they are inclusive of transgender people.
The final presentation of the day was an overview of a research study which is assessing “Risk of Repeat
Violence in Abusive Female Same-Sex Intimate Relationships."
Nancy Glass, Co-Director of the Center for
Health Disparities Research at OHSU, and Emily Gardner, Bradley Angle House, gave an overview of their work
evaluating the effectiveness of the Danger Assessment 2 (DA -2) to assess the risk of repeat violent victimization
of women in abusive same-sex relationships. They have used a variety of methods to draw information. Their method
uses a community based participatory research approach to examine the relevance of existing risk factors on the
DA-2 and identify additional risk factors unique to the experience of victims and perpetrators of intimate partner
violence (IPV) and to evaluate the effectiveness of the DA-2 (revised based on phase one) to assess short-term
risk of repeat violence with female victims of same-sex IPV. Their detailed research is impressive and provided
insights into the dynamics of same-sex IPV that are similar to those found in non-gay relationships as well as
those dynamics that can be unique. The researchers examined various themes including perpetrators characteristics,
abuse not specific to the LGBT community, double stigma and seeking safety.
Overall the conference was highly informative and well thought out. The committee that worked to make this
event a reality is to be commended. Participants left the day with a binder full of valuable resources and new
information they can put to use in their professionals and personal lives. Much thanks and credit are due to the
following five groups who co-sponsored this conference: Domestic Violence Intervention Council, Western Community
Policing Institute, Washington County Circuit Court, The Williams Project and Voices Set Free.
Workshop Sponsors:
Voices Set Free
Western Community Policing Institute
Oregon Judicial Department
Washington County Domestic Violence Intervention Council