ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on domestic violence. It turns to gay and lesbian victims of violent crimes that take place outside the domestic context. On the cultural level, legal remedies are used to uphold the 'norm' and heteronormativity can be seen as a discursive practice that pervades literature, education and legal language. It could be said that heteronormativity emphasizes the correctness of heterosexuality and traditional family forms. Anti-homosexual bias on a structural level in this context is termed heterosexism. This chapter shows the disadvantages with both gender-specific and gender-neutral legislation. A gender-specific legislation tends to present a static view, normalization, of the ideal victim in certain instances; example has been the Swedish regulation of domestic violence. Here the heterosexual woman is seen as the normal victim, therefore there is a tendency to overlook and belittle the plight of those victims of domestic abuse who are not heterosexual women.
