NOMAS Panel Discusses Causes, Preventions for Same-Sex Domestic Violence

Panel Discusses Causes, Preventions for Same-Sex Domestic Violence
Reprinted with permission from QsaltLake (qsaltlake.com)

Written by JoSelle Vanderhooft
Wednesday, 16 January 2008

A panel of experts in domestic violence – all members of the National Organization for Men Against Sexism – met Jan. 11 at the South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society to discuss the problem of domestic violence in the romantic relationships of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people.

Campus Sexual Assault Response Teams and Peer Education Groups

• IVRT: Interpersonal Violence Response Team, Northern Illinois University
• PAIRS: Providing Advocacy and Intervention Regarding Sexual Assault, SUNY Oneonta
• SAFER: Sexual Assault Free Environment Resource, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
• SOS: Sexual Offense Support, Delaware State
• SRVP: Sexual and Relationship Violence Prevention, West Chester University
• CARE: Campus Assault Response, James Madison University
• SARV: Sexual Assault & Relationship Violence Team, University of South Carolina
• STAR: Students Together Against Rape, UNC-Asheville
• SARA: Sexual Assault Response Advocates, Delaware State
• EWO: Eyes Wide Open, Grand Valley State University
• FIRE!: Fighting Ignorance and Rape through Education, Western Michigan University
• SHARE: Sexual Health Awareness & Rape Educators, University of South Carolina

NOMAS Joined Successful Amicus Brief to Protect Women's-only Shelters

NOMAS joined an amicus brief with California Women’s Law Center in a case, in which a man who claimed to be a domestic violence victim brought an unsuccessful equal protection challenge to state funding for Los Angeles area women-only domestic violence shelters.

Serving as a tester for the National Coalition of Free Men, Blumhorst called ten agencies to request shelter because, he said, he was experiencing domestic violence.

The Myth of the "Battered Husband Syndrome

By Jack C. Straton, Ph.D.

The most recurrent backlash against women's safety is the myth that men are battered as often as women. Suzanne Steinmetz [1] created this myth with her 1977 study of 57 couples, in which four wives were seriously beaten but no husbands were beaten. By a convoluted thought process [2] she concluded that her finding of zero battered husbands implied that men just don't report abuse and therefore 250,000 American husbands [3] are battered each year by their wives[4], a figure that exploded to 12million in the subsequent media feeding frenzy [5].

Men have never before been shy in making their needs known, so it is peculiar that in 17 years, this supposedly huge contingent of "battered men" has never revealed itself in the flesh.