It seems a little odd but it’s definitely good news: The Senate Judiciary Committee just voted to add lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people to the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), with a special re-authorization sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy D-VT (right), and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-ID.
We guess it’s easier than starting from scratch.
The new measure would allow funds to be used for programs providing services to LGBT domestic-abuse victims and ban any group receiving VAWA funds from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Studies indicate queer victims, when seeking help, are often discriminated against by law-enforcement officials and social-service providers.
“Victims of domestic violence need assistance, not irrational barriers based on their sexual orientation or gender identity,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “We thank the members of the Judiciary Committee that have recognized the discrimination LGBT domestic violence victims face when seeking assistance.
Source: San Diego LGBT Weekly
Lol
Sen. “Crapo?” I’m sorry, I didn’t understand a word of this article after reading that name. THAT’S FUNNY SHIT! and I’m just too big a child not to be distracted by it.
JayKay
VAWA is vile, sexist, and blatantly discriminatory against men. It should be repealed and stricken from the books, not expanded.
Ted
Why can’t we have a Violence Against Human Beings Act (VAHBA)?
Kev C
Not sure if serious
JayKay
@Ted:
That would mean men and women would be treated equally under the law. The antithesis of everything militant liberal feminism stands for.
Bob
• How can anyone support VAWA and not be either ignorant or immoral themselves. Please read the following from one woman who has personal and professional experience with VAWA:
By Wendy McElroy
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that is up for renewal
epitomizes a ruinous trend. Tax-funded ideologues produce highly biased
studies and conclusions; bills based on skewed data become law; then the
lies are forced into the framework of society and into people’s lives.
VAWA has lied successfully for 17 years because it combines
semi-truths with full-blown intimidation. Its basic semi-truth is that
domestic violence hurts women. The actual truth is that women and men
become victims of domestic violence at roughly the same rate. But
politically-correct feminism must dismiss the massive evidence of men’s
equal victimization because the reality does not fit their rigid
worldview of men as perpetrators, women as casualties. Instead PC
feminists respond by manufacturing a loud hysteria around women and
violence, for example by expanding the definition of rape to include
drunken women who are deemed incapable of consent. Somehow I doubt
drunken men will also be viewed as rape victims.
The incessant selling of women as the victims and men as the perps
serves many purposes. A primary one is intimidation. Those who object to
the specifics of VAWA are automatically attacked as favoring violence
toward women. If you object to VAWA’s ‘must arrest’ policy because it
takes the choice to prosecute away from victims, then you are siding
with the batterers. If you question the sixty-plus passages of the new
VAWA that exclude men from services and protection, then you want women
to be beaten.
It is difficult to intimidate me on domestic violence. Years ago I
was beaten so badly by a ‘partner’ that my right eye hemorrhaged in the
line of vision and I have been legally blind in the eye ever since. On a
visceral level, I know more about DV than academics with their
tax-funded research, PC feminists with their self-promoting agendas or
well-intentioned third parties who genuinely believe VAWA benefits
women.
The DV attitudes in VAWA were a large part of why it took me so long
to heal. As long as I bought into suspicion and rage toward all men, I
could not make sense of my own reality. Only when I realized one man was
responsible and other men would have come to my aid did I grasp the
beating as a personal, not a political experience. Then could I form the
trusting, loving relationship with another man who became my husband.
The perpetuation of a gender schism and demonization of men only acts to
harm women who need to heal.
Lies do not help, lies do not heal, especially when the
sleight-of-hand is done for profit. The profit from VAWA is not merely
political but also fiscal. The Department of Justice’s Office on
Violence Against Women administers the funds allocated to VAWA. The
budget requested by the Office this year is $454,898,000. The
bureaucrats who administer the funds receive high salaries and benefits,
social status and prestige. They have enormous incentive to ignore the
cries of men victimized by domestic violence and the protest of men who
would step in to protect women from fists. They have incentive to ignore
me.
What critics of VAWA have on their side is the truth. And goodwill
toward all victims of domestic violence, both male and female.
Joe
@Bob: You state a lot of “facts” but don’t back them up. Tell you what, I’ll start by saying that yes, there are people who have strong biases against men, unreasonably strong biases. Those people exist, and they are often the victims of abuse themselves, much the same as perpetrators of violence were also victims of some form of abuse. Most of the men who perpetuate domestic violence, and yes they are mostly men, were abused themselves. This is a huge tragedy, and it sucks because I see this man doing this evil and despise the victims he’s created, but I can’t just dehumanize him as some alien monster because he was probably a scared little boy at one point who suffered at the hands of another. If you want to advocate for male victims of abuse, adult and child, then I applaud it because that’s at the root of this problem. But if you think this means liberals or feminists are your enemy then you are dead wrong. I’m sure you’ve encountered and seen examples of extreme feminism, but as someone who is a feminist and got a degree in women’s studies if that is all you see then you are missing the bigger picture. Oppression, violence, and fear are the enemies hear, their cyclical nature is like a weed across humanity that touches race, gender, sexuality, and all kinds of humanity. It feeds like a cancer and when we attack each other, we’re like white blood cells, shutting down the organs rather than expelling the problem.
maki
stop whining…specially the STRAIGHT ACTING GAY MEN…..with protection or without protection????? duh…….
JayKay
@maki:
If you believe gay men will benefit from this any more than straight men do(which is not at all, in fact it actively harms them), you must be on crack.