Keeping Abuse in the Closet, One House Bill at a Time
May 23rd, 2012 by Kimberly
Congratulations, House of Representatives. You have achieved something I truly didn’t believe would ever happen. You took a bill designed to protect women from violence and you turned it into a way to make sure some people continued to be punished. This is a feat I thought beyond the power of even the Boehner-led House.
I was wrong.
Last Thursday, May 17, 2012, our duly elected House of Representatives voted to pass the Cantor/Adams Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization. It sounds like a good thing, doesn’t it? Extending protections abuse for women. Who could oppose that? Well, let me clarify. Extending some protections, for certain people.
Let’s go back a little further. Back on April 26 of this year, the Senate passed a version of the Violence Against Women Act that included some new language. It specifically added protections for Native American women, for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and for immigrant victims of abuse. According to the records of the U.S. Senate, sixty-eight people voted for it. Thirty-one voted against it, and one person abstained.  All thirty-two that didn’t vote to pass it are Republicans. All thirty-two are also men.
The bill reached the House and was stripped of all its new provisions.
If I ignore it, it goes away...right?
Rep. Sandy Adams, a Republican from Florida and the main sponsor of the bill, chastized the Democrats for trying to turn this into “a political issue.” (From dictionary.com: politics (n) the policy-formulating aspects of government as distinguished from the administrative, or legal. You’re all politicians. Voting on something is inherently political. The official verdict from Spock has not yet been received, but I’m sensing a lack of logic.) The bill was to protect all women. To call out specific protections for Native American women, for lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) folk, and illegal immigrants was apparently part of the Democratic scheme.  In the words of Rep Lamar Smith, a Republican from Texas, they were “exploiting the legislation for political gain.”
Honestly, I would love to agree with them. I wish with all my heart that the issue was that simple. People are people, after all, and when they have a problem, they should be able to turn to the authorities for help. Someone tormented by an abusive relationship should get the assistance they’re looking for, and their nationality or sexual preference or even status of citizenship shouldn’t be an issue. No one deserves to have to live with threats and violence as a part of her life, no matter what other circumstances surround her.
I would love to believe that. But I can’t. Blame the toaster oven. It’s the one sitting there with the warning that says “DO NOT submerge in water.” You know why they have to say that? No, not because the warranty writers got bored, but because someone else did, and decided to see whether something with a power cord would make a good bathtub toy.
You know why they need to put special provisions for certain groups of women in the Violence Against Women Act?  Because society has decided that some women are more equal than others, and it treats their complaints differently.
The National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women did a comprehensive study and published their findings on their website. Here are a few of them.
FACT #1. Native American women are the victims of sexual and domestic violence at more than double the rate of non-Native American women. If the attack takes place on tribal land, the local court has no authority to try a non-Native American man for attacking a Native American woman. The Department of Justice has acknowledged the gap and testified that changes need to be made to remedy it.
FACT #2. Incidents of domestic abuse occur in the same numbers in homosexual relationships as they do in heterosexual ones, but half of LGBT victims were turned away from domestic violence shelters. 55% were denied orders of protection. It is estimated that only 7% of all LGBT victims actually attempt to report the abuse to authorities.
FACT #3. Abusive spouses who filed immigration paperwork for their wives waited an average of four years to do so. A survey of abused immigrant women reported that nearly 75% of their spouses had never filed immigration papers for them, even though they were eligible for legal status.
(The first two facts are found on the main fact sheet. The third can be found on the section “Immigration Provisions of S. 1925.”)
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), first passed in 1994, has made changes for the better in our world. According to a summary from the Department of Justice, it has granted funds for legal aid to women who wouldn’t otherwise have had access to it. VAWA has trained law enforcement personnel in how to deal more effectively with situations of domestic violence, where the abused may fear reprisal for trying to press charges. It instituted a “rape shield” law, helping to reduce the number of situations where the victim finds herself more on trial than the accused. It started down a good path and has done some very positive things. The whole point of the language that the Senate inserted in their Reauthorization bill was to take a good thing and make it better, by fixing some of the parts of it that don’t currently work.
The law as it stands has some issues. The Senate voted to fix them, or at least to try. The House of Representatives voted to be part of the problem.
Representative Lynn Jenkins, a Republican from Kansas, was quoted in the New York Times as saying that “it really pains me” when Democrats claim that their Republican counterparts don’t care about domestic violence. You know what I say, lady? Take a Tylenol and shut up. When the Department of Justice says that the law has holes and you say “Oh, well,” I don’t know what else you expect us to think.
Kimberly really wishes the House of Representatives were this worried about change when it comes to the size of their paychecks.
Composed long response, wished for keyboard instead of phone, got over it. Tagged for later reply.