Lawyers Manual - Unified Court System

Domestic Violence in the LGBT Communities 409
as the “domestic violence waiver”) is available to LGBT survivors. 33 Prejudice
and confusion about sexual orientation or gender identity issues may, however,
make getting public assistance more difficult.
Housing and LGBT Domestic Violence 34
Many LGBT survivors of domestic violence, like other survivors, face
homelessness; however, homeless shelters, even domestic violence shelters,
often do not provide appropriate services for LGBT survivors. Under New York
City and New York State anti-discrimination law, LGBT homeless and
subsidized housing tenants should be treated in a non-discriminatory manner.
However, it is not considered discriminatory to refuse to shelter gay men if a
shelter is a single sex unit for women, since anti-discrimination laws specifically
allow single gender shelters. 35 There are also specific problems for trans clients
who may be identified by their sex assigned at birth and therefore assigned to
the wrong single sex shelter. However, the Department of Homeless Services
(DHS) has released a very helpful policy directive regarding sheltering
transgender clients in homeless shelters. The DHS policy states that “a client’s
gender is determined by his or her gender identity,” and gender identity shall be
determined by asking “the client how he or she identifies, irrespective of legal
documents or physical appearance.” 36
All domestic violence survivors who are in imminent danger and have no
safe place to live are eligible for shelter regardless of sex, gender, immigration
status, family size or income, state or community of origin, or any other factor.
However, because of space restrictions some shelters may limit the number of
beds available for large families, single people, men, older male children, or
residents with special needs. 37
Non-Domestic Violence Specific Civil Legal Remedies
Because the legal system does not provide many of the “safety” protections
that we generally rely upon when working with survivors, such as orders of
protection and the myriad relief that accompanies these orders, it is important to
consider other legal remedies that might be available to LGBT intimate partner
violence survivors. An LGBT survivor of intimate partner violence may be able
to bring a breach of contract action, 38 or invoke the laws of partnership, 39
constructive trust, 40 conversion, 41 replevin, 42 or tort. 43 Clients may also want to
consider using Small Claims Court. 44