What are some of the unique legal challenges facing LGBT victims of intimate partner violence?
Because of evolving or unequal state and federal law, and negative or unsettled case law relating to family formation and relationship recognition, some legal remedies available to heterosexual victims may be difficult to access for LGBT people. Examples include: • Non-citizen LGBT victims in valid same-sex marriages with their abusers may be unable to access immigration status protections afforded by the federal Violence Against Women Act, such as battered spouse waiver or self petition, because federal law does not recognize same-sex marriages. • A lesbian with a valid same-sex civil union from Vermont may be unable to get that union dissolved in New York, because civil unions are not recognized as a marriage under present case law. • A transgender female may be improperly denied access to domestic violence shelter because of the program’s unwillingness to support her gender identity and expression.
