Kansas City group opens rare LGBTQ domestic violence center

The Kansas City Anti-Violence Project's new domestic violence and sexual assault services center also is the only such center in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa, filling a gap for a population of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer people who often struggle to find help in domestic violence situations.

Workers at the center, which opened in February and is tucked inside an office building, helped her quickly get a restraining order, find emergency housing, transportation, food and clothing.

The law now requires shelters to take LGBTQ domestic violence victims, while providing federal funding for some advocacy organizations and allowing states to use grants to improve responses to domestic violence.

Most LGBTQ domestic violence victims to rely on mainstream domestic violence programs and shelters, Jindasurant said.

[...] Joyce Grover, executive director of the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, notes that many of them do not feel comfortable at traditional communal-living shelters, which largely house heterosexual women.

The larger goal remains teaching the public that domestic violence is widespread and involves power and control, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, according to Ruth Glenn, the executive director of the nonprofit National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.