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LGBT Young People and Domestic Abuse: Scenarios Discuss each scenario in a group for about 10 minutes. Think about what is happening for the young people involved and how they may feel throughout the scene. • What are the specific or unique issues for this young person that they are experiencing because they, or their family members, are LGBT? • What is the service doing well? • What is the service doing poorly? • What could be improved? Voices Unheard, February 2012 Scenario 1 Craig is 16 and bisexual and goes to school in your area. A few months ago he was sexually assaulted by an acquaintance at a party. He has been finding it really hard to concentrate at school and has been having lots of fights with his mum because she knows there is something wrong, but he won’t talk about it. He sees a poster in a café advertising a local organisation and decides to phone them to arrange to talk to someone. When he phones them they say that they will send him an appointment through the post. Craig is worried that his mum will open the letter and so makes sure that he is there for the postman in the mornings. This means he is sometimes late for school. Four weeks after he phoned them, he gets a letter through the post. The letter says that he should go to their office at 2.30pm. Craig decides to leave school during lunch. When he gets to the service he talks to a woman who listens when he talks about what happened. When he finishes talking she says that he must feel awful and says that it is often a lot more difficult for men when the abuser is another man. The woman provides him with some resources and arranges another appointment for Craig. On the way home Craig decides he doesn’t want to go back again. Voices Unheard, February 2012 Scenario 2 Jenny is 21 and has been in a relationship with Claire for the last 2 years. Recently Claire has become quite aggressive and violent towards her. This seems to happen when they go out with a group of people and Claire is always saying that Jenny flirts with men when they are out and she’s not a real lesbian and she should just go and get a boyfriend instead. Jenny has seen some information about domestic abuse and thinks this may be what is happening to her. She goes online and looks at a service’s website in her area and looks at the information that they have. All of the information talks about men abusing women and the examples that they give really don’t seem to be anything like what she is experiencing. She decides that this is probably just something that will blow over and leaves it. The next week Jenny and Claire go out again and when they get home Claire starts screaming at Jenny. The neighbours hear and phone the police. They arrive and ask both of them what is going on. Claire tells them they are just having an argument and that they are fine now. The police say that they need to calm down and as they are leaving Jenny hears one of the police officers saying to the other that there seem to be a lot of flatmates having arguments at the moment. Voices Unheard, February 2012 Scenario 3 Laura is a young trans woman in Dundee. She has been experiencing domestic abuse from her partner, Tom, for a few months. She has ended the relationship, but is finding it difficult to move on and Tom keeps phoning her and saying that he loves her and wants to get back together. Laura knows that the relationship was abusive and very negative for her self-confidence, which has been quite low since she started transitioning. She decides that she should go and talk to someone about this and maybe get some advice about what she can do to make sure Tom leaves her alone. She is nervous about accessing a service but finds one whose website states that it is inclusive of all women, regardless of sexual orientation. She figures they will be inclusive. She arranges an appointment at this service, and still feels very nervous about going as it seems scary to talk to someone else about the abuse she’s experiencing. When she arrives the receptionist greets her and asks her what she is doing there. Laura explains that she is there for an appointment. The receptionist looks concerned and says she just needs to check something. Another staff member comes into reception looks at Laura and goes back into the other room. Five minutes later another person comes out and takes Laura into a private room and begins the Voices Unheard, February 2012 session. The worker seems very nervous and asks Laura if her ex-partner is a man or a woman. As the session goes on she seems unsure and half way though the session goes out of the room and Laura can hear her talking to other workers. Laura had wanted to tell the service that she was trans, but feels very uncomfortable. She decides that she wants to leave and so gets up and tells the worker outside that she needs to go. Voices Unheard, February 2012 Scenario 4 Sarah has been accessing support at a domestic abuse service because her mum has been experiencing domestic abuse from her step dad. Her step dad has moved out of the house, but he still comes round sometimes and sometimes stays round. Recently Sarah has been questioning her sexual orientation and thinks she may be a lesbian. Her step dad doesn’t like gay people and if Sarah wears her baggy jeans around the house he calls her a dyke. Sarah knows that she could never tell her mum or step dad that she thinks she might be a lesbian because it would just make things worse. She has seen how violent he gets and this would make him very angry. Sarah decides to tell her worker at the service about being LGB or T. The worker listens to her and says that there is information online and there is a LGBT Youth group in Dundee City that she could go to. She says that she will find the information for her. As Sarah and her mum are leaving the worker says “Sarah, I don’t have your email address, so I’ll just post you that information about the group, ok?”. Voices Unheard, February 2012 Scenario 5 Joe is a 16 year old schoolboy who is witnessing domestic abuse in his family. He has two fathers: Charlie and Trevor. Trevor has always been a little forgetful but it has been escalating; Trevor has been having problems with his hormone medication, at times he is going through the medication quicker than usual, and Charlie is accusing Trevor of being careless. Joe is concerned about his parents and witnessed Trevor reacting poorly to a gift from Charlie. Trevor looked embarrassed and hurt when he said he did not like the shirt (which looked like a women’s blouse to Joe) and Charlie became very angry and began yelling. Joe has been learning about domestic abuse in school and recognises some of the same signs with his parents but the school only talked about men’s violence against women, so he’s not sure. Joe has decided to talk to a domestic abuse service for support. At first, the worker is very friendly and Joe is comfortable in their presence. Then, the worker asked something about Joe’s mum and dad and Joe takes offense, thinking the service is being transphobic by calling his dad Trevor his ‘mum’. Joe angrily explains that he has two fathers and the worker is visibly surprised. The worker then asks about Joe’s sexual orientation. Joe becomes confused and upset, and then explains that Trevor is a transman. Voices Unheard, February 2012 The worker looks stunned and doesn’t know how to respond to Joe, they start rifling through drawers and shelves to find leaflets and hands Joe information on women services. The worker then swiftly wraps up the conversation and tries to leave the meeting early. This leaves Joe confused, angry and upset and decides to leave. Voices Unheard, February 2012