My partner got viciously beaten by his father when he got outed, he was very visibly bruised, his face swollen. When I came to pick him up, I didn't know his father had learnt of our relationship, so it took me a moment to understand what was happening, but my partner's first instinct was to launch himself between me and his father, so that his father wouldn't be able to hit me and would only be able to hit him. It's been forty years, we're still together.