Fear of double disclosure and other barriers to the help seeking behaviour of LGBT youth in Northern Ireland

It has been widely documented that violence in intimate partner relationships cuts across age, class, race, sexual orientation, disability and national boundaries. However, the context in which violence takes place can pose challenges to effective prevention. One of these challenges relates to the fear of double disclosure amongst LGBT youth experiencing teenage relationship abuse (teenage intimate partner violence / dating violence) who live in Northern Ireland.

A supportive response in cases of teenage relationship abuse has been documented to play an important role in tertiary prevention efforts. However, this necessitates disclosure of abuse which is compromised in cases of young LGBT teenagers who live in Northern Ireland and are experiencing teenage relationship abuse. Disclosure of teenage relationship abuse in Northern Ireland is mediated by a host of contextual factors including a homophobic faith environment. This context can marginalize LGBT teenagers facing teenage relationship abuse.

This chapter reports on a theme emerging from preliminary findings drawn from an ongoing qualitative research project exploring the experiences of teenagers facing teenage relationship abuse (TRA) in Northern Ireland. It maintains that disclosure of dating violence in Northern Ireland is mediated by a host of contextual factors including the fear of homophobic reactions, the fear of being stigmatized, as well as the institutional silencing of LGBT lives.