Battered gay men: an exploration of abuse, help seeking, and why they stay

In comparison to a large body of literature about battered heterosexual women and a growing body about battered lesbians, this is one of the first published studies that investigates the experiences of battered gay and bisexual men. Results indicated that these men suffered patterns, forms, and frequencies of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse similar to what has been documented by research on battered heterosexual and lesbian women. Likewise, the most commonly reported reasons for staying--namely, hope for change and love for partner--appear to be universal to the experience of being battered. Unlike battered heterosexual women, respondents in this study were not likely to report that being financially trapped was a major reason why they had remained. HIV-status, however, appears to significantly influence their decision to remain. Moreover, lack of knowledge about domestic violence and the lack of availability of appropriate resources play a significant role in same-gender domestic violence victims' decisions to remain. Like battered lesbians, battered gay men infrequently sought assistance from battered women's services and perceived these services as not helpful. By contrast, individual counselors and agencies who provided individual counselors were rated as quite helpful.