Tag Archives: Women

One Million Rising March

Recently I joined the One Million Rising march in London against domestic violence. It’s an annual march which happens each year protesting against Male violence against women. I took part because I believe that whatever our identity we need to stand up against violence and hate crime but also because I believe that whilst this type of violence is primarily directed against women it impacts us all.

Now before I go any further I want to make clear that I know men are victims are violence by women and that domestic violence is something which occurs within our LGBTQ community too. Indeed 2010 research, cited in a F word post, carried out by LGBT Youth Scotland and the Scottish Transgender Alliance showed 60% of those surveyed said they had experienced domestic abuse from a partner and 80% reported experiencing some form of abusive behaviour from a partner or ex partner.[1]

Returning to why I think that it is important to stand up against violence against women. Catherine Redfern and Kristin Aune make clear in their book Reclaiming the F Word Feminism Today that “sexism and homophobia walk hand in hand; at the root of homophobia lie deeply entrenched sexist attitudes about what is acceptable behaviour for men and women.”[2]

These attitudes put all of us in danger, LGBorT, and we need to stand up to them where ever they occur and whoever the victims are.

However, whilst we need to acknowledge men are primarily the perpetrators we do need, as I said earlier to recognise that the problem is not an exclusively heterosexual or female issue. Broken Rainbow works with the LGBT community and on International Women’s Day they were making the point that many LBT women were falling through the cracks and failing to be given the support and safety they needed. They say “the dominance of the heteronormative view of Domestic Violence and Abuse means that so many agencies, such as the police and refuges are not sufficiently equipped to support lesbian and bisexual women. Furthermore trans women or women with a gender history often face additional difficulties, such as refuges being concerned about upsetting other service users.”[3]

So let us stand up against all hate crime and domestic violence whoever the victim is, acknowledging that at the root are the same attitudes but at the same time noting the issues faced by particularly groups of victims.

[2] Redfern, C and Aune, K, (2013) Reclaiming the F Word Feminism Today, Zed Books, p 63