OVW Head Deserves Credit for Taking First Step to Inclusiveness

Submitted by Matt on Mon, 2010-06-21 23:25

From Abusegate Bob:

In her June 18 message, Office of Violence Against Women director Susan B. Carbon highlighted the recent DoD advisory. Carbon writes (see key sentence in bold):

Last week, the Department of Justice clarified that the criminal provisions of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) apply with equal force in cases when the victim and perpetrator are of the same sex. The Department is working to ensure that all U.S. Attorney offices are aware of the law’s applicability to LGBT relationships. In addition to publishing an Office of Legal Counsel opinion on the subject, the Department has provided notice of the opinion to the U.S. Attorney offices. This confirms that Department of Justice prosecutors have access to all available tools to protect victims of domestic violence and stalking whether they be in same sex or opposite sex relationships. This does not represent a change in the law, nor will it narrow or otherwise impact VAWA’s existing criminal applications. Rather, it clarifies to the extent that there was any doubt that VAWA is inclusive and protective of women and men, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Read more: http://www.justice.gov/olc/2010/vawa-opinion-04272010.pdf

This is the first time the OVW has made an official statement recognizing the existence of male victims of domestic violence. It's an important first step to turning things around.

We encourage you to send a positive note to Judge Carbon thanking her for her work to assure VAWA is gender inclusive in its programs and services. Here's her email: OVW.Director-at-usdoj.gov

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Comments

Seems to me that sometimes MRAs have such a need for good news, any good news, that they'll try to squeeze the positive out of anything. All the D of J is doing is including gays in VAWA. Primarily gay females. They have no intention of including straight males because it would question the paradigm of men=perps, women=victims.

I guess that not losing ground is cause for celebration.

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Submitted by Hunchback on Tue, 2010-06-22 02:45

Ya I don't think it challenges much at all. If your really searching for it you can find a slight acknowledgment of the idea that women can do domestic violence and men can be victims but it will be too easy for people to separate straights and gays. You could argue its a meager step in the right direction... but it would still be easy to allow this "change" and maintain the status quo (men abuse women but not the other way around).

Today on The View I saw them shortly talk on the theme of fathers day. One well spoken Guy and two of the women were supportive of fathers and talked about the discrimination fathers face (this, after one of them brought up a study showing that fathers will get as stressed as mothers do raising the kids). Then, the hateful Joy Behar started bad mouthing fathers. One of the pro fathers person talked about the value of a male role model. Behar then went on to say that gender doesn't matter and that two mothers or two fathers are just as good...

when she was saying gender does not matter she did not mean it. She was just bashing men before and was talking about gays as a way to exclude men. We recently had a post about a study that attempted to show lesbians as better parents and they completely excluded gay men in that study.

This doesn't seem like a real change to me. Including gays does not really mean your including men of any orientation.

Gay men are still men and should be considering men's rights too.

here is where the video is
http://abc.go.com/watch/the-view/167365

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Submitted by fondueguy on Tue, 2010-06-22 08:08

This sounds more like a new welfare system for lesbian couples rather then a step forward for men. Since many courts have found that lesbian partners cannot be pursued for child support nearly as easily as anonymous sperm donors, this seems to be opening the door to shelters and subsidized housing for the lesbian partner that retains the child after the break up while she seeks out the identity of the sperm donor for child support, if she merely alleges abuse.

It will not be used in PRACTICE to help gay or straight men. It will merely open the free housing and legal support straight women who claim abuse receive to dykes. Remember, most hardcore feminuts are dykes,and they are the ones who run the programs, shelters and lobby the District Attorneys,police, judges and lawmakers with your money to keep the status quo.

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Submitted by Paragon on Tue, 2010-06-22 16:39