Domestic violence? Never heard of it!

On Christmas Eve in Yonkers, a shot rang out and when the dust settled, a lesbian activist lay dead in the backyard of her Sunlight Hill home with her "live-in partner" standing over her, clutching the murder weapon.

Aside from the question of what a liberal lesbian activist household is doing with a gun, the story carefully tiptoes around the question of domestic violence. In nearly every heterosexual tale of spousal murder, domestic violence is the centerpiece of the discussion. Why the different standard in this story?

A direct quote: "I don't want to call this domestic violence because we don't know what happened."

Sure we do. A lesbian woman shot her live-in lover. I'd call that domestic violence. Doesn't sound as though they were happily cleaning guns in the back yard when one went off.

Here's another quote: "We've lost not only a wonderful caring colleague, but a very bright, highly educated person."

Is domestic violence reserved for dumb, uneducated people? Sounds like someone's been watching one too many episodes of "Cops" and believing the stereotype that domestic violence is reserved for drunk white males who wear tank tops ("wife beater t-shirts), have very few teeth and southern accents.

Disturbed human behavior is not reserved for a particular class, gender or geographical location. You'd never know it from this story.