expects women to be nicer, more caring and less sexual than men, so lesbians carry those stereotypes as to how they should be. If anything, lesbians may be more caught up in the romantic myths than heteros. When the couple has difficulties being nice, caring and sexually compatible, it threatens their internal beliefs about how women are, and makes it more difficult to try to examine what is wrong in the relationship. Lesbians, being women, commonly have more financial stress in their relationships as good paying jobs, and jobs with health insurance, are much less available to them. Since they cannot legally marry, even if one partner has health insurance through their job, it cannot be extended to their partner as a job benefit. If they decide to have and raise a child together, society does not recognize that the partner who did not give birth has any claim at all on the child, even if she has participated 100% from before the moment of its conception in the child's life, financially and in every other way. The law does not allow another person of the same sex to jointly adopt a child, although this is currently being challenged. AVAILABILITY OF SERVICES FOR LESBIANSWhile many shelters admit battered lesbians, the woman may not be comfortable in identifying herself as a lesbian within the shelter. She may not be "out" at all, and yet when discussing the battering, may have difficulty in always implying that her partner is male. It may be easier for a woman to learn the location of battered womens' shelters. A percentage of the women working in the shelters are lesbians, and they may not treat battering within lesbian relationships as seriously as that in heterosexual relationships. So hiding out in a shelter may be out of the question for a battered lesbian if her partner is determined to find her and confront her. If the lesbian is an S&M lifestylist, many shelters might not admit her, believing that there is no difference between ba...
