GLOV, HIPS Launch D.C. Hotline
24-7 hotline will provide support, assistance, referrals for LGBTQ victims of violent crime, including domestic abuse
Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV), an antiviolence and hate-crime response group affiliated with The DC Center for the LGBT Community, in collaboration with Helping Individual People Survive (HIPS), announced on Thursday the launch of hotline aimed at providing support to LGBTQ victims of violence.
The new LGBTQ Violence Response Hotline, operating at all times, is intended to help a variety of victims by linking them with trained volunteers from the two organizations. Those volunteers will provide appropriate information during a crisis, such as referrals to culturally competent organizations in the D.C. area that deal with victims’ services. The hotline is intended to serve victims of domestic or intimate partner violence, bias- or hate-motivated violence, immigrant violence, sexual assault or hook-up/pick-up violence, as well as cases of possible police misconduct.
Until now, there has not been a local 24-hour crisis support and referral service specifically for LGBTQ victims of violence, according to a press release from GLOV.
According to Chuck Goldfarb of the Rainbow History Project, there was a hotline known as the D.C. Switchboard in the 1970s and 1980s that ran from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a night, but its chief purpose was to provide information or referrals to people in the LBGTQ community. Whitman-Walker Clinic also played host to a hotline that provided information about HIV to the LGBTQ community during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, according to Hassan Naveed, the outgoing co-chair of GLOV. But neither hotline was exclusively focused on combating anti-LGBTQ violence.
”GLOV is proud to partner with HIPS to provide this important service to the LGBTQ community,” Paul Tupper, the newly elected chair of GLOV, said in a statement. ”The resources and assistance available through the hotline will go a long way towards helping survivors of violence cope and recover.”
The GLOV and HIPS LGBTQ Violence Response Hotline can be accessed at any time by calling 202-888-7222.
Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
