While attending the Women and Mental Health Conference in 1991, and hearing about the issues of domestic violence in the gay and lesbian communities, the idea of developing services for this population germinated. Subsequently, in 1990, a local domestic violence group therapy program was adapted to create the first group counselling for lesbian victims of same-sex domestic violence in their relationships. In time, some lesbians who had perpetrated violence in their relationship made the foray into the ongoing heterosexual perpetrator groups.

After several presentations were given about this area of abuse, in the early 1990s, a group of professionals began to meet to address further the gap in the Calgary domestic violence services and training available for the LGBT communities. As a result, in 1997 a training program for professionals, called Women Hurting Women (WHW), was begun to be discussed under the auspices of Peer Support for Abused Women. WHW training began in 2000.

Soon after, in 2002, the professional training program, YouthSafe (YS), was brought into the discussion to address the issues of bullying and harassment of LGBT youth. The YS training began in 2006. This program now resides with the Alberta Civil Liberties Centre.

In the same year, to address the domestic violence issues in the gay male community, a concurrent training, Violence in Gay Male Relationships (VIGOR) was adapted from the original WHW program.

These three programs, along with their media campaign of posters, websites and help cards, had been linked in a joint effort known as Safety Under the Rainbow (SUTR) by 2005. In addition, membership on a general domestic violence committee was begun and the area of same-sex domestic violence became more widely known.

By 2007 the WHW and VIGOR trainings were amalgamated into one LGBT domestic violence professional training known as Same-Sex Domestic Violence (SSDV). Then, in 2010, the SSDV program expanded to become a capacity building program that agencies could access to increase the overall capacity within their organizations. This included not only the SSDV training but assistance for an agency with their documentation and accessibility to become a truly gay-positive organization.

Visit the website for more information on the programs offered by Safety Under the Rainbow.