ABSTRACT
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an unfortunate reality within queer and heterosexual relationships alike. Despite what might be presented within the media, IPV is not only perpetrated by cisgender men against cisgender women, and experiences of IPV within queer relationships is a topic worthy of academic inquiry. Recent statistics highlight that bisexual women experience the highest rates of IPV (61.1%) and the majority of this violence is perpetrated by men (89.5%). Therefore, the media's depiction of IPV may be missing the potential influence of sexuality, and more specifically heterosexism, on experiences of IPV. Additionally, more than one in two (54%) transgender individuals reported experiencing IPV during their lifetime, and while media has begun to highlight the high rate of violence against the trans community, limited attention is given to the amount of violence perpetrated on trans people by intimate partners. Thus, IPV against trans people is a critical missing piece in media depictions of violence against trans individuals. Within this chapter, we review the prevalence and unique experiences of IPV among queer communities, discuss existent media analyses of IPV, particularly within queer relationships, and provide a media analysis of three cases of intimate partner homicide within queer relationships (i.e., the murders of Annamarie Cochrane Rintala, Yuni Carey Herrera, and Stephen Sylvester).
