Resources
A growing resource library that brings together insights, guidance, key research, statistics, and other sources of helpful information to deepen understanding of FDV & IPV, with an emphasis on the unique impacts and circumstances that occur within the LGBTIQA+ community.
Creating visibility and validity
Statistics can be a powerful way to illustrate the occurrence and frequency of FDV/IPV however we know LGBTIQA+ people are often overlooked, excluded or under-represented in studies and surveys.
This creates invisibility.
LGBTIQA+ people are also affected by being viewed through a heteronormative lens. Without an easily identifiable stereotypically masculine aggressor and stereotypically female victim, both the survivor and potential support services may not recognise abuse.
This creates feelings of self-doubt and perpetuates harm.
Quality data and research provides an evidence base that breaks through these barriers to effect real change.
What is FDV/IPV?
Family & domestic violence (FDV) / intimate partner violence (IPV) situations can occur with anyone who you are close to or have a personal relationship with.
FDV/IPV is not only physical violence. It can include include emotional abuse, threats, intimidation, financial control, sexual violence, social isolation, stalking, technology-facilitated abuse, property damage, and other behaviours that make someone feel afraid, controlled or unable to make free choices.
In LGBTIQA+ communities, violence can happen in intimate relationships, dating partners (past or current, in-person or online, long-term or casual), chosen family, family of origin, housemate relationships, and other close personal relationships.
A key feature of FDV/IPV is often power and control. This means the behaviour is not just a “bad argument” or “relationship conflict”. It is a pattern where one person uses fear, pressure, manipulation or control to limit another person’s freedom, safety, identity or wellbeing. Research also shows that many LGBTIQA+ people may not recognise what is happening as violence, partly because public conversations about family domestic violence often focus on heterosexual, cisgender relationships.
FDV/IPV is never okay, and it is never the fault of the person experiencing it.
All familial and intimate relationships should be built on respect, fairness, and caring for each other’s well-being.
Learn About Abuse
FDV/IPV takes many forms and may not be easy to recognise.
Some examples are easily visible, such as physical violence or property damage. Others are harder to see from the outside, such as emotional abuse, coercive control, financial control, social isolation, technology-facilitated abuse or identity-based abuse. Research describes family violence as a pattern of behaviours where the cumulative impact is coercion, control and intimidation – even when individual acts may not be criminal on their own.
For LGBTIQA+ people, abuse can also target identity, privacy, community connection, healthcare and belonging. This may include threats to ‘out’ someone, deliberate misgendering, undermining someone’s sexuality or gender, threatening to disclose HIV status, using homophobia, biphobia or transphobia to discourage help-seeking, or isolating someone from LGBTIQA+ safe spaces.
Research also shows that many people do not name these experiences as “violence” or “abuse”, especially when abuse is emotional, social, financial, identity-based or coercive rather than physical.
Types of Abuse
Abuse Towards Property, Pets or Belongings
Damaging someone’s home, belongings, mobility aids, documents, sentimental items, or threatening pets as a way to frighten or control them.
Coercive Control
A pattern of behaviours that restricts someone’s freedom, choices, safety or independence over time.
Elder Abuse
Abuse, neglect or control targeting an older person, including financial exploitation, emotional abuse, social isolation, threats, neglect of care needs, control over housing or medical decisions, or pressure from partners, adult children, relatives, carers or others in their support network.
For older LGBTIQA+ people, this may also include outing, threatening to disclose identity, forcing someone to hide their sexuality or gender (go ‘back into the closet’), made to feel shame or guilt, or restricting contact with partners/chosen family/community.
Emotional or Psychological Abuse
Put-downs, humiliation, mind games, intimidation, blaming, gaslighting, threats, making someone feel worthless or afraid.
Family-of-Origin Abuse
Abuse from parents, siblings, relatives or carers, including rejection, threats, forced isolation, pressure to hide identity, forced marriage or conversion practices.
Financial Abuse
Controlling money, stopping someone from working or studying, taking income, creating debt, controlling housing, transport or essentials.
Identity-based Abuse
Threatening to out someone, misgendering or deadnaming them, mocking their sexuality or gender, threatening to disclose HIV status, or using stigma to control them.
Medical or Healthcare Related Abuse
Blocking access to medication, hormones, appointments, contraception, disability supports, mental health care or gender-affirming healthcare.
Physical Abuse
Hitting, pushing, choking, restraining, blocking exits, throwing objects, damaging property, threats of physical harm.
Sexual Abuse
Pressuring, forcing or manipulating someone into sexual activity; ignoring consent; using guilt, fear or substances to pressure someone into acts they otherwise would not consent to.
Sexual abuse can happen within families – both extended, immediate and chosen.
Social Isolation
Cutting someone off from friends, family, chosen family, culture, community, support services or LGBTIQA+ spaces.
Systems Abuse
Using police, courts, immigration, child protection, complaints processes or services to intimidate, punish, discredit or control someone.
Technology-facilitated Abuse
Monitoring phones, messages, location or social media; using shared accounts to track someone; threatening to post private images or information.
Recognising the Signs
Family, domestic and intimate partner violence can be hard to recognise, especially when it does not match the examples people usually hear about or see represented in ‘mainstream’ campaigns.
Abuse may happen gradually, privately, or be explained away as stress, jealousy, insecurity, trauma or “just relationship problems”. For LGBTIQA+ people, it can also be harder to name because many public conversations about family violence still focus on heterosexual, cisgender relationships and physical violence. Research shows this can make emotional abuse, social isolation, coercive control and identity-based abuse harder to recognise as violence.
A helpful way to notice the signs is to pay attention to how the relationship makes you feel over time. Do you feel free to be yourself, make choices, say no, stay connected and seek support? Or do you feel like you are shrinking, hiding, walking on eggshells, managing someone else’s reactions, or losing touch with people and parts of yourself?
Signs of Abuse
People often reflect there were missed ‘red flags’ in an abusive relationship. If you can recognise yourself in some of these behaviours you may be experiencing an FDV/IPV relationship.
| You may feel… | This could be a sign that… |
| On edge | You are often worried about how they will react, or you change your behaviour to avoid upsetting them. |
| Confused | You regularly doubt your memory, judgement, feelings or whether what happened was “bad enough”. |
| Trapped | You feel like leaving, saying no, asking for space or making your own choices could lead to punishment or escalation. |
| Small or ashamed | You feel worse about yourself, your identity, your body, your sexuality, your gender or your place in the world. |
| Isolated | You feel cut off from friends, family, chosen family, community, culture, faith or support services. |
| Responsible for their emotions | You feel like it is your job to keep them calm, prevent their anger, or stop them from hurting themselves. |
Coercive Control and Hidden Forms of Abuse
Coercive control is not just one type of abuse. It is a pattern of behaviour used to gain power over another person and limit their freedom, safety and independence over time. Individual behaviours may look small, confusing or easy to minimise on their own, but together they can make someone feel trapped, afraid, dependent, isolated or unable to make free choices. Research describes family violence as patterned behaviour where the cumulative impact of abusive tactics is coercion, control and intimidation, even when individual incidents may not be criminal on their own.
This is what makes coercive control different from a single argument, one-off hurtful behaviour, or a relationship that is unhealthy but not abusive. Coercive control is about the overall pattern: one person’s behaviour repeatedly reduces the other person’s autonomy. In LGBTIQA+ relationships, coercive control can also work through identity and belonging. These tactics are powerful because they draw on real experiences of discrimination and fear.
A helpful way to understand coercive control is to ask: is this behaviour making someone less free? Are they less able to see people, make choices, express themselves, access support, use money, seek healthcare, leave safely, or live openly as who they are? If the answer is yes, it may be part of a pattern of coercive control.
Abuse from Family or Community
Family violence is not only intimate partner violence. Abuse can also happen within families, kinship networks, faith or cultural communities, housemate relationships, chosen family, care relationships or other close relationships. For LGBTIQA+ people, this can be especially complex when harm is connected to sexuality, gender, bodies, relationships, community connection or the pressure to hide who they are.
Family and community abuse can be hard to recognise because it may happen within relationships that are also important sources of love, care, culture, language, faith, housing, identity or belonging. Many LGBTIQA+ people also rely on chosen family – close friends, partners, ex-partners, mentors or community members who provide the care, safety and acceptance that biological or legal family may not.
When abuse happens in these networks, it can be confusing and isolating because it may threaten a person’s whole support system.
For some LGBTIQA+ people, “coming out” or being found out can be a high-risk time. At the same time, families, chosen families and communities can also be powerful sources of safety, protection and belonging when they affirm and accept LGBTIQA+ people.
No one should have to choose between safety, identity, family, culture, faith, community or being themselves.
Click below to read some examples of what family or community violence can look like.
Rejection or exclusion
Being kicked out, cut off, disowned, ignored, shunned or excluded from family/community events.
Pressure to hide who you are
Being told not to dress, speak, date, transition or live openly as yourself.
Outing or threats to out you
Threatening to tell relatives, community members, employers, faith leaders or people overseas without consent.
Shame, humiliation or “honour” pressure
Being told you have brought shame on the family, culture, faith or community.
Forced change or “fixing”
Pressure to attend conversion practices, forced counselling, religious intervention, forced dating or forced marriage.
Isolation from support
Stopping contact with friends, chosen family, partners, LGBTIQA+ community, school, work or services.
Control through dependence
Controlling housing, money, transport, documents, medication, care needs, visas or access to services.
Threats or intimidation
Threats of violence, self-harm, deportation, reputational harm, family punishment or community backlash.
Misgendering or identity denial
Refusing to use someone’s name or pronouns, mocking gender expression, or saying their identity is not real.
Community-based harm
Bullying, gossip, exclusion, harassment, religious condemnation or pressure from community networks.
Abuse from family or community can be confusing because people may still love, need or feel loyal to those who are hurting them.
Wanting connection does not mean the abuse is okay. You deserve safety and support without having to give up your identity, culture, family, faith, community or chosen family.
What Makes LGBTIQA+ Experiences Different?
LGBTIQA+ people can experience the same forms of family, domestic and intimate partner violence as anyone else. What can be different is the way abuse may target sexuality, gender, bodies, privacy, community connection, family relationships, HIV status, culture, faith or access to affirming healthcare.
One important example is identity-based abuse. This happens when someone uses a person’s LGBTIQA+ identity, or the stigma surrounding that identity, as a way to control, shame, isolate or frighten them. It can include threatening to out someone, deliberately misgendering or deadnaming them, mocking or denying their identity, using homophobia, biphobia or transphobia against them, controlling access to gender-affirming care, threatening to disclose HIV status, or cutting them off from LGBTIQA+ community and chosen family. Identity-based abuse can be especially harmful because it uses real-world discrimination as part of the abuse.
LGBTIQA+ people may also face extra barriers to recognising abuse and getting support. Research has found LGBTIQA+ people:
- Often have difficulty recognising IPV
- Fear discrimination or judgement from services
- Encounter non-inclusive services
- Experience delays or inappropriate referrals when systems rely on cisgender and heterosexual assumptions.
- May also worry that speaking up will reinforce negative stereotypes about LGBTIQA+ people, expose them to further stigma, or disrupt shared friendship groups, chosen family or community spaces.
This means LGBTIQA+ experiences of abuse are not always easy to name, especially when they do not fit the usual public story of family violence. Better recognition means understanding both the abuse itself and the wider context around it: identity, stigma, safety, community, services and the fear of not being believed.
Common myths about abuse in LGBTIQA+ relationships
Myths about LGBTIQA+ relationships can also make abuse harder to recognise.
For example, people may assume that women are not violent, that men cannot be victims, that abuse is always physical, that same-gender relationships are automatically equal, or that the more masculine-presenting person must be the abuser.
These assumptions can be harmful because they hide the real dynamics of power, control and fear.
Abuse is not determined by someone’s gender, sexuality, size, appearance or role in a relationship. A person of any gender can use violence or control, and a person of any gender can be harmed by it. What matters is the pattern of behaviour: is someone being controlled, threatened, isolated, humiliated, pressured, monitored or made afraid? Research on LGBTIQA+ family violence programs specifically identifies myths such as “women are inherently non-violent”, “men are naturally aggressive”, “the more butch or masculine-presenting partner is likely to be the abuser”, “hormones make transgender men aggressive and transgender women irrational”, and “domestic violence does not exist in LGBTIQA+ communities”.
Is My Relationship Healthy, Unhealthy or Abusive?
Dysfunctional Relationships vs Abusive Relationships
Not every unhealthy or painful relationship is abusive. Some relationships are dysfunctional because communication has broken down, conflict is handled poorly, needs are not being met, or both people are reacting from stress, fear, trauma or insecurity. These dynamics can still cause real harm, and they may need support, boundaries, counselling or even ending the relationship – but dysfunction is not the same as abuse.
An abusive relationship involves a pattern of power and control. One person may use fear, intimidation, coercion, humiliation, isolation, financial control, sexual pressure, threats or psychological manipulation to limit the other person’s freedom and safety. In LGBTIQA+ relationships, this can also include identity-based abuse.
In some relationships, both people may yell, withdraw, become defensive or say hurtful things. In abuse, there is usually a pattern where one person’s behaviour makes the other feel afraid, trapped, monitored, dependent, silenced or unable to leave safely. Practitioners working with same-sex intimate partner violence have cautioned that ideas like “mutual abuse” can minimise the role of coercion and control, and that careful assessment is needed to understand where power sits in the relationship.
This distinction matters because abusive relationships are often misread as “toxic”, “messy”, “high conflict” or “both sides being difficult”. For LGBTIQA+ people, abuse may be even harder to name because public stories about family violence often focus on heterosexual, cisgender relationships and physical violence. Research shows this can make people less likely to recognise emotional abuse, social isolation, financial abuse, coercive control or identity-based abuse as violence.
Below are some relationship dynamics that show the difference between a dysfunctional relationship versus an abusive relationship.
| A dysfunctional relationship may involve… | An abusive relationship may involve… |
| Poor communication. | One person using communication to confuse, intimidate or control. |
| Frequent arguments. | One person using fear, threats or punishment to get their way. |
| Hurtful comments from both people. | A pattern of humiliation, degradation or targeted emotional harm. |
| Jealousy or insecurity. | Monitoring, isolation, accusations or control over who someone sees. |
| Conflict about money. | Controlling access to money, housing, transport, work or study. |
| Difficulty respecting boundaries. | Repeatedly overriding boundaries, consent or autonomy. |
| Stress, reactivity or avoidance. | Coercion, intimidation, manipulation or making someone afraid to leave. |
| Needing relationship support. | Needing safety planning, specialist FDV/IPV support, or behaviour change support. |
Remember: a relationship does not need to be physically violent to be abusive. Feeling afraid, controlled, isolated, constantly on edge, or unable to be yourself is enough reason to seek support.
You do not need to prove that the relationship is “bad enough” before talking to someone.
Healthy Relationships
Healthy relationships are built on respect, trust, care, consent and freedom. They should feel safe enough for each person to be their authentic self – including their sexuality, gender, culture, faith, body, friendships, community connections and relationship choices. In LGBTIQA+ relationships, safety also means respecting names, pronouns, privacy, boundaries, chosen family, and each person’s right to decide how “out” they want to be, and to whom.
Healthy relationships are not perfect relationships. People can still disagree, feel hurt, make mistakes or need space. What matters is how those moments are handled. In a healthy relationship, conflict does not become intimidation, threats, humiliation or control. Each person can take responsibility, apologise meaningfully, repair harm and make changes without blaming the other person for their behaviour.
For LGBTIQA+ people, healthy relationships can be especially protective when they affirm identity and belonging. Supportive partners, families and communities help people feel safer, more connected and more able to live openly as themselves. This can include using the right name and pronouns, showing ongoing love and care, welcoming partners or friends, learning about LGBTIQA+ experiences, and supporting someone’s gender expression or sexuality even while learning.
Below are some relationship dynamics that show what a healthy relationship looks like.
| In a healthy relationship… | This can look like… |
| You feel respected. | Your identity, body, culture, faith, privacy and choices are treated with care. |
| You can say no. | Boundaries are heard, not argued with, punished or worn down. |
| You can be yourself. | You are not pressured to hide, change, perform or minimise who you are. |
| Conflict is safe. | Disagreements do not involve threats, fear, humiliation or control. |
| Accountability is possible. | Harm is acknowledged, not denied, minimised or blamed on you. |
| Connection is supported. | Friends, family, chosen family and community are not treated as threats. |
| Consent matters. | Sexual, emotional, financial and digital boundaries are respected. |
| Growth is shared. | Both people can learn, repair and change without one person carrying all the work. |
A simple way to think about it is: a healthy relationship gives you more room to be yourself, not less. You should not have to shrink your identity, silence your needs, cut off your support networks, or live around someone else’s reactions to keep the relationship stable.
Are you in a healthy relationship?
Unsure whether you are experiencing IPV? Take this quiz to help gain a better understanding of your situation.
Supporting LGBTIQA+ Clients
Do not wait for someone to prove they belong in your service.
Build a service where LGBTIQA+ people can see, feel and trust that they are already included.
For GPs and Allied Health Professionals
GPs, counsellors, psychologists, social workers, nurses and allied health professionals can play an important role in recognising family, domestic and intimate partner violence. For many LGBTIQA+ people, a health professional may be one of the first people they consider telling – but disclosure depends heavily on whether the service feels safe, informed and non-judgemental.
Research shows that LGBTIQA+ people experiencing IPV may face barriers in primary care, including difficulty recognising abuse, fear of discrimination, non-inclusive services, inadequate provider training, and services built around heterosexual and cisgender assumptions.
Primary care providers also report barriers, including lack of LGBTIQA+ specific training, limited resources, and uncertainty about how to respond appropriately.
A better response starts with not assuming. Ask open, inclusive questions about relationships, safety and support. Use the person’s name and pronouns. Do not assume the gender of their partner, the structure of their relationship, or whether they are “out” to family, work or community. Be alert to identity-based abuse, including threats to out someone, misgendering, control over gender-affirming care, isolation from LGBTIQA+ community, or using shame, stigma or discrimination to control them.
Below are some examples where re-phrasing what you say can help make potential LGBTIQA+ clients immediately feel seen, supported and safe.
| Instead of… | Try… |
| “Do you have a husband/wife?” | “Are you in a relationship?” or “Do you have a partner or partners?” |
| “What did he do to you?” | “What happened?” or “Who is making you feel unsafe?” |
| “Why don’t you just leave?” | “What feels safest for you right now?” |
| “Is it really domestic violence if you don’t live together?” | “Abuse can happen in many kinds of intimate or family relationships.” |
| “I’m not an expert in LGBTIQA+ issues.” | “You don’t have to educate me. I’ll support you and link you with affirming services.” |
| “It’s ok, I know a gay person.” | “I support a wide range of different people, you don’t need to justify anything.” |
| “He.”, “She”. | “Can I just check which pronouns you prefer I use.” |
Practical allyship means making safety visible before someone has to disclose.
This can include inclusive posters, intake forms that ask about pronouns and relationship diversity, visible privacy statements, staff training, clear referral pathways, and up-to-date knowledge of LGBTIQA+ affirming FDV services.
It also means checking whether the person can be contacted safely, whether messages can be left, whether their partner or family has access to their phone, and whether referrals could increase risk.
A safe first response can change everything.
“I believe you. This is not your fault. You deserve support. We can talk through options at your pace.”
For FDV Workers and Services
LGBTIQA+ inclusive FDV work requires more than welcoming language. It means recognising that family violence can happen in same-gender relationships, queer relationships, trans and gender diverse people’s relationships, family-of-origin contexts, chosen family, housemate relationships, carer relationships and other close personal relationships. It also means understanding that violence may be physical, emotional, sexual, financial, social, technological, identity-based or coercively controlling.
Research has found that LGBTIQA+ people are often missed by mainstream FDV frameworks because public and professional understandings of violence still tend to focus on cisgender men using violence against cisgender women in heterosexual relationships. This can lead to misidentification, minimisation, poor risk assessment and inappropriate referrals.
In research with practitioners, queer identity was identified as something that can be weaponised in abusive relationships, while current frameworks, risk assessments and safety planning often fail to recognise those dynamics.
A strong response means assessing power, fear and control, not relying on gendered assumptions about who is the victim-survivor or who is using violence. Be careful with labels like “mutual abuse” or “relationship conflict” unless risk has been properly assessed. In LGBTIQA+ relationships, the person using violence may present as the victim, and the victim-survivor may be reluctant to disclose because they fear discrimination against themselves, their partner or their community.
Below are some areas of your practise which you might want to consider reviewing to better support the LGBTIQA+ community.
| Practise area | What better practise can look like… |
| Intake | Ask inclusive questions about gender, pronouns, sexuality, partners, family, chosen family and safety. |
| Risk assessments | Include outing, misgendering, social isolation, medical control, community shame, systems abuse and threats to reputation. |
| Safety planning | Consider privacy, devices, shared community spaces, family rejection, housing, pets, children, medication and gender-affirming care. |
| Referrals | Build pathways with LGBTIQA+ specialist services, community-controlled organisations and affirming health/legal supports. |
| Workforce development | Make LGBTIQA+ FDV training ongoing, practical and embedded into supervision, policy and case review. |
| Representation | Use website, posters and resources that visibly include LGBTIQA+ people and relationship diversity. |
| Accountability | Support people using violence to take responsibility without excusing harm through trauma, stigma or minority stress. |
| Intersectionality | Consider racism, disability, age, faith, culture, migration status, poverty, regional isolation and previous service harm. |
The evidence also points to the need for system-level change. ANROWS research recommends required LGBTIQA+ inclusivity training for FDV/IPV sector staff, mandatory inclusivity training in clinical organisations and legal settings, stronger referral pathways into LGBTIQA+ friendly programs, better representation in promotional materials, ongoing funding for tailored programs, and programs that respond to diverse needs within LGBTIQA+ communities, including managing transphobia and biphobia.
Being a better ally means being willing to change the service, not just expecting LGBTIQA+ clients to fit into existing systems.
This includes listening to community expertise, partnering with LGBTIQA+ organisations, paying for training and consultation, reviewing policies and forms, collecting appropriate data, and making inclusion part of core service quality – not an optional add-on.
For Police, Legal and Justice Workers
Police, court staff, lawyers, magistrates, corrections workers and other justice professionals can play a critical role in whether LGBTIQA+ people experiencing family, domestic or intimate partner violence feel safer – or further harmed. For many LGBTIQA+ people, contacting police or legal systems can feel risky because of past and present experiences of discrimination, criminalisation, misidentification, racism, transphobia, homophobia or not being believed.
Research has found that mistrust of police and the criminal justice system, linked to historical experiences of discrimination, is an important factor in LGBTIQA+ people’s responses to DFV/IPV.
A safer response starts with taking the disclosure seriously and avoiding assumptions about who is using violence. Do not rely on gender, size, masculinity, femininity, who called first, who appears calmer, or who seems more distressed to decide who is the victim-survivor or who is using violence. In LGBTIQA+ relationships, abuse may be misread as “mutual conflict”, and identity-based abuse may be missed if workers are only looking for physical violence. Assessments should focus on patterns of power, fear, coercion, control, intimidation, isolation, threats and harm.
Justice responses also need to recognise LGBTIQA+ specific risks. These can include threats to ‘out’ someone, deliberate misgendering, threats to disclose HIV status, isolation from LGBTIQA+ community, control over medication or gender-affirming healthcare, use of racism or immigration insecurity, fear of being placed in an unsafe custody environment, and fear that reporting will expose a partner or community to discriminatory treatment.
Practitioner research on same-sex intimate partner violence found that homophobia, transphobia and historical trauma can discourage victim-survivors from reporting, and that heteronormative service structures and risk assessments can contribute to misidentification and unsafe responses.
Below are some areas of your practise which you might want to consider reviewing to better support the LGBTIQA+ community.
| Practise area | What better practise can look like… |
| First contact | Use calm, respectful language. Ask for name, pronouns and safe contact details. Do not assume gender, sexuality or relationship structure. |
| Risk assessment | Look for coercive control, fear, isolation, threats, identity-based abuse, technology abuse, financial control and systems abuse – not only physical injury. |
| Misidentification | Do not assume the person who called first is the victim-survivor, or that distress, anger, intoxication or trauma responses mean someone is the aggressor. |
| Privacy and outing risk | Do not disclose someone’s sexuality, gender history, HIV status, relationship status or chosen name to family, employers, community members or other services without consent unless legally required. |
| Trans and gender diverse safety | Use correct names and pronouns. Consider risks around custody, searches, documentation, medical needs, hormones and gender-affirming care. |
| Cultural safety | Consider racism, migration status, language barriers, family/community pressure, fear of authorities, and the need for culturally safe interpreters or advocates. |
| Referrals | Offer referrals to LGBTIQA+ affirming FDV, legal, health and counselling services. Do not assume mainstream pathways are safe or appropriate. |
| Accountability | Hold the person using violence accountable without using identity, trauma, alcohol, mental health, stigma or discrimination to excuse abusive behaviour. |
The evidence points to the need for justice systems to build LGBTIQA+ capability, not leave it to individual workers.
ANROWS research recommends mandatory inclusivity training for police and legal professionals, stronger referral pathways into LGBTIQA+ friendly FDV/IPV programs, and greater representation of LGBTIQA+ people in family violence materials. Training should be practical and ongoing, with supervision, policy, risk assessment tools and accountability measures that help workers recognise LGBTIQA+ experiences of violence accurately and safely.
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