Kansas City Included in National Report on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Domestic Violence

Written by Doug Riley

Tuesday, 19 October 2004

Kansas City, MO – October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and in recognition, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) today released a 2003 Supplement to its report Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Domestic Violence in 2002. The Kansas City Anti-Violence Project (KCAVP) is a member of NCAVP. The 2003 Supplement represents NCAVP’s 8th annual analysis of this kind and is a look at domestic through the lens of those victims who reported to its member agencies during the past year. The report contains information compiled in 10 cities or regions around the US, and for the first time this year includes data from a Canadian city: Toronto, Ontario. NCAVP member agencies and several other affiliated organizations serving LGBT and HIV-affected victims of domestic violence participated in gathering and reporting data for this document.

There were 6,523 cases of domestic violence documented by the programs participating in the report this year, which represented a 13% increase from the 5,718 cases recorded in 2002 by the same agencies. The cases included six domestic violence-related deaths. The 2003 Supplement is slightly different than reports published by NCAVP in years past and represents several transitions. For instance, this year’s publication does not provide an in-depth discussion of basic information on LGBT domestic violence, but rather focuses on reporting the data collected from the participant programs and offers more case narratives that give life and voice to the experiences portrayed in the data. The report also contains local summaries from the cities and regions in which data was collected. For more in-depth basic information on LGBT domestic violence, readers are encouraged to view the 2002 Report and previous reports published by NCAVP which contain this information as well as other analyses on items such as legal access for victims in jurisdictions across the nation.

Despite the 13% increase in the rate of reporting in 2003, representatives caution that this change, as in previous years, is largely attributable to increased program capacity, outreach and expansion of service provision at some of the participant agencies. While not a data contributor, the Kansas City Anti-Violence Project in Missouri contributed survivor narratives and information on local activities. KCAVP had nine cases of domestic violence in its first year of helping LGBT victims of domestic violence—one of which was the murder of Rahmaan K. Belton.

“KCAVP is pleased to show that even in the infancy of our organization, we helped LGBT people and raised awareness of this issue in the inaugural year of 2003,” remarked Doug Riley, Executive Director of KCAVP. “In 2004, we have more than doubled the number of LGBT domestic violence victims we helped compared to 2003. Additionally, we have been successful in outreach with area domestic violence shelters to increase awareness in their organizations of LGBT survivor issues and how to more effectively serve LGBT survivors.”

“It is tremendously important that we take this opportunity during Domestic Violence Awareness Month each year to highlight the ongoing issue of domestic violence experienced by all communities – including our own,” said Rachel Baum, NCAVP’s Associate Director. “Domestic Violence is an issue that no community likes to acknowledge, but which we know affects people across all demographic lines,” continued Baum.

Of the victims in the 6,523 cases documented by NCAVP, 44% were male and 36% were female. 2% of victims identified as transgender, although NCAVP representatives noted that it is possible that some people who may identify as transgender were included in the male and female categories. Of the victims in the report for whom race was known, 44% were white, 25% Latino/a, 15% of African descent, 5% Asian/Pacific Islander and 4% reported as multiracial. Additionally there was a 54% increase in reports from victims under the age of 30, which is reflective of the heightened emphasis on services for young people at many agencies.

PDFs of the reports can be found in the “Reports” section at http://www.kcavp.org/.

The Kansas City Anti-Violence Project (KCAVP) is a Missouri nonprofit corporation committed to providing services, advocacy and education for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and bias crimes within the five counties that encompass the metropolitan Kansas City area. For more information about KCAVP, visit http://www.kcavp.org/.

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) is a coalition of programs that document and advocate for victims of anti-LGBT and anti-HIV/AIDS violence/harassment, domestic violence, sexual assault, police misconduct and other forms of victimization. NCAVP addresses the pervasive problem of violence committed against and within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and HIV-affected communities. NCAVP is dedicated to creating a national response to the violence plaguing these communities. Further, NCAVP supports existing anti-violence organizations and emerging local programs in their efforts to document and prevent such violence.