Forgotten survivors: analysis of the phenomenon of domestic violence and operative proposals to take charge of transsexual and lesbian women

The aim of this work is to analyse Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in cisgender lesbian women and heterosexual trans women . We have chosen to focus on these different phenomena because both of them reveal the insufficiency of the classic power and control wheel created by feminist anti-violence organisers in order to analyse, understand and counteract domestic violence. In addition, the strict use of classical categories developed by the study of violence in opposite-sex couples has shown its limits too, as we will affirm in the “definition” paragraph. We are referring to lesbians and trans women from within a “strategical essentialist” view, namely a way to present subordinate or marginalised social groups focusing (temporary) on a number of core elements and putting aside local differences in order to forge a sense of collective identity, and to create solidarity toward a specific social problem (Spivak 1987). As stated by Phillips (2010), strategic essentialism is a way to “[…] invoke a collective category – like the subaltern or women – while simultaneously criticising the category as theoretically unviable. Though she [n.d.a. Spivak] subsequently distanced herself from what she saw as misuses of the notion of strategic essentialism, the idea that we may have to ‘take the risk of essence’ in order to have any political purchase remains an important theme in feminist theory and politics” (Phillips 2010, p.48). In the first part of this paper we will discuss the topic of the definition of IPV, starting from a critique of the traditional rigid definition, grounded on a gender-based heteronormative framework. We will propose a contextual definition based on a postmodern intersectional framework, in accordance with the literature about LGBTQ IPV (David & Glass 2011; Greenberg 2012; Ristok 2005; Courvant & Cook-Daniels 1998). In the following section we will present the theoretical framework which underpins our interpretation of the problem of IPV and, in relation to survivors, draw upon the : coercive control model (Stark 1995), minority stress model (Mayer 1995) and affirmative therapy models. Furthermore, we will apply the minority stress model to analyse the specific features of discrimination against LGBTQ persons. In the final part we will apply the conceptual tools provided by the abovementioned theoretical models and we will focus separately on the analysis of the peculiar characteristics of IPV towards lesbians and trans women trying to take into consideration the social inequalities that contribute to the establishment of an oppressive relationship. Finally, we will also try to outline some practical guidelines for professionals dealing with these phenomena, based on the literature about LGBTQ IPV, on the affirmative therapy models or on examples of programs that try to work outside the traditional domestic violence protocols.