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Lack of support for same-sex relationship violence

1985


“I tend to try to hang out with people who aren’t mentally ill, these days! Me and my friend, the first thing we say if anyone gets involved with anyone else is, ‘Are they sane?’ I wonder what it is about the lesbian community, I think there are a lot of damaged women around, and there aren’t the same systems for support, you’re more on your own, certainly at that time there was no awareness or understanding about violence in same sex relationships. I remember one woman came to , her girlfriend had been shimmying up the drainpipe and in through the window to attack her at night, and we said ‘Go away’, we’re not interested, this is about male violence’. That’s astonishing to me now, we just didn’t understand the difference between institutionalised oppression and individual – when you’re experiencing it, it doesn’t matter that it’s not institutionalised, you feel like shit, but because it doesn’t have the same societal impact doesn’t mean it didn’t happen and I don’t think we realised that, because our view of women was so political it was somewhat idealised”.

Contributed by: Trisha McCabe, 51

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