Groundbreaking Television Program on Same Sex Domestic Violence Airs Friday September 25 on TVSeattle Channel 28

Domestic violence between same-sex couples is a problem rarely discussed or researched, and it remains hidden from the community at large. It is also often kept secret within the sexual minority community itself.

On Friday, September 25, 1998 at 7:00pm, the City of Seattle’s Channel 28 will air a 40-minute discussion on same-sex domestic violence that is very likely the first of its kind in the nation. This show will repeat on Monday September 28, 1998 at 7:30 pm. The show features host Heather Worthley, a policy analyst at the City of Seattle’s Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Unit, and guests Tara Hardy, a counselor at Seattle’s Advocates for Abused and Battered Lesbians, and Dr. Ned Farley, a psychology professor at Antioch University.

"Some evidence suggests that incidents of same sex domestic violence occur at approximately the same rate as domestic violence in heterosexual relationships," says Worthley, "but there is not a corresponding effort to remedy the problem." According to a 1997 Seattle survey conducted by the Seattle the Commission for Sexual Minorities, approximately 12% of the survey respondents had experienced same sex domestic violence.

In conjunction with this program, a day long symposium, "Breaking the Silence: Domestic Violence in Sexual Minority Communities," will be held on Friday, October 2, at Antioch University in Seattle. The symposium is the first of its kind on the west coast.

This television show is second in the series, "We All Belong! The Road Ahead for Civil Rights," produced by the Seattle Office for Civil Rights. The first show featured an interview with Angela Oh, a board member of the President’s Initiative on Race.

For more information, please call the Seattle Office for Civil Rights at (206)684-4500.