![]() ![]() Eight years later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted the first-ever national survey of intimate partner violence by sexual orientation and discovered that lesbians (and gay men) experience equal or higher rates of partner violence than the straight-identified population. ![]() The issue's lack of national attention means that data is slim, but a 2005 survey by the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA) concluded that one in three lesbian-identified participants had been sexually assaulted by a woman, and one in four had experienced violence within a lesbian relationship. But there's a scenario that, while less frequent, is no less damaging to the victims it claims: rape between women. ![]() Thanks in part to the battered women's movement of the 1980s and the growing awareness of the current rape culture in the United States-from assaults on college campuses to abuse within relationships-we've been hearing a predominantly heterosexual story. Sexual assault is perceived as a straight issue, perpetrated by men against women. "The officer who spoke with me didn't even think to ask the gender of my assailant until I gave her the name," she remembers. Alaina explained to the officer who answered that she had been sexually assaulted by a current student-that she'd been drugged, choked, and penetrated by her assailant's fingers as she faded in and out of consciousness one night five months ago. ![]()
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