New report on partner and sexual violence in Rainbow communities

A new report on partner and sexual violence in Rainbow communities in Aotearoa New Zealand has been released.

The report, Building Rainbow communities free of partner and sexual violence (2016) was written by Sandra Dickson and produced as part of the project Hohou Te Rongo Kahukura - Outing Violence.

The report includes the results of a survey, which was answered by 407 people with diverse ethnicities, gender identities, ages and sexualities. It found concerning levels of both partner and sexual violence, including many forms of psychological abuse and isolation that are specific to people in Rainbow communities. The survey also found that most people in the Rainbow community were not seeking help in relation to partner and sexual violence, and those that who did seek help from specialist agencies often did not experience that help as supportive.

Project manager Sandra Dickson said, "We’re very grateful to everyone who came to the hui, answered our survey, or got in touch through our website. The stories of abuse people shared were painful, but maybe what's even more painful was existing frameworks and responses to partner and sexual violence are inadequate at best and harmful at worst."

"The barriers start with many of us thinking that the services out there are not for us. That’s about how invisible specialist sexual violence services are for lots of people in Rainbow communities, and unfortunately, it's also about what happens when some people ask for help and receive transphobic, biphobic or homophobic responses."

The report includes the following recommendations:

• Include sex, sexuality and gender diverse people’s experiences of partner and sexual violence at strategic, policy and service planning levels.
• Relationships with Rainbow communities and training for "mainstream" violence services on preventing and responding to sex, sexuality and gender diverse people’s experiences of partner and sexual violence.
• Training for Rainbow community agencies on preventing and responding to sex, sexuality and gender diverse people’s experiences of partner and sexual violence.
• Resources for Rainbow communities focused on friends, family and whānau knowing what to do to help
• Resources which are culturally appropriate and diverse for the many communities inside the Rainbow community which explore healthy relationships and outing violence.
• Resources which are culturally appropriate and diverse for families, whānau and wider communities to support their Rainbow family members.
• Working with Hohou Te Rongo Kahukura – Outing Violence to create a central hub for information, resources and training to raise awareness and improve responses for Rainbow community members experiencing violence.

Hohou Te Rongo Kahukura - Outing Violence was set up in 2015. Since its establishment, the project has:

• Created a website, including statistics; resources on partner and sexual violence for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex survivors of abuse; information how to support a friend who is experiencing or using violence; phobias and -isms; and more
• Gathered information via a national survey 
• Discussed violence in online, print, audio and visual Rainbow media and held 18 community hui around the country (attended by 240 peple) to create shared understandings of partner and sexual violence and ask for community advice on solutions. 

"Rainbow" as a term seeks to include "all people in Aotearoa New Zealand under the sex, sexuality and gender diversity umbrellas, recognising there is not a perfect umbrella term. Rainbow seeks to include people who identify as aka’vaine, asexual, bisexual, fa’afafine, fakafifine, fakaleiti, FtM, gay, gender fluid, gender-neutral, gender nonconforming, genderqueer, gender variant, hinehi, hinehua, intersex, lesbian, mahu, MtF, non-binary, palopa, pansexual, polysexual, queer, questioning, rae rae, tangata ira tane, takatāpui, 同志 (tongzhi), trans man, trans woman, transfeminine, transgender, transmasculine, transsexual, vaka sa lewa lewa, whakawahine and more." 

Rainbow communities struggle to find help for domestic violence, Stuff, 23.05.2016

Nationwide lack in support systems for rainbow domestic and sexual violence survivors, GayExpress, 23.05.2016

Sexual violence services and the Rainbow community, Press Release: Hohou Te Rongo Kahukura, Scoop, 23.05.2016