No place like home : intrafamilial hate crime against gay men and lesbians

Popular representations of hate crime are commonly framed by the notion of 'stranger danger', and while more contemporary research has identified the situational contexts of this victimisation (Mason 2005; Moran 2007; Iganski 2008; Perry & Alvi 2012), there remains a gap in relation to intrafamilial hate crime. In addition to being more violent, hate violence against sexual and gender diverse communities - as with honour-based violence - is also more likely than other forms of hate crime to be perpetrated by immediate family members. This chapter identifies the key characteristics of reported violence against gay men and lesbians and critically examines the force and effects of intrafamilial hate crime. As a set of outlier files in a larger study of verbal-textual hostility in hate crime victimisation (Asquith 2013), the data presented in this chapter illustrate how these specific forms of intimate hatred can be easily mislabelled, and in turn, misunderstood in terms of policy and practice. Traditional models for understanding hate crime motivation do not capture the intimate nature of this form of victimisation, where the motivation is not thrill or excitement, defence, retaliation, or mission (McDevitt et al. 2002). In this paper, we propose that intrafamilial hate crime is expressed in ways that better align with honour-based violence than hate crime. As with others who experience honour-based violence, gay men and lesbians are often thought to bring the family or community into disrepute for infringing heteronormative values and practices. Employing strategies across the continuum of violence, intrafamilial hate crime aims to punish these transgressions - including the use of 'corrective rape' (Martin et al. 2009) - reinstates heteronormative behaviour, safeguards the family honour, and 'saves face'