While we know that intimate partner and family violence are risk in any relationship, for LGBTI people it may be more invisible because of the compounding impact of LGBTI relationships being less recognisable to service providers and the lack of inclusion of LGBTI relationships in relevant research. 

This exclusion is driven both by individuals in violent relationship not feeling safe enough to disclose, and from service providers who are not alert to the particular patterns of LGBTI intimate partner or family violence. Both of these are informed by widely held societal beliefs that any violence within LGBTI relationships can be seen as quarrels between equals rather than the power and control driven conflicts that we understand family violence to be in other contexts.