Senate rejects Republican version of VAWA without LGBT protections

Submitted by Mastodon on Mon, 2013-02-11 00:10

Article here. Excerpt:

'Leading up to the Senate vote on the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization, a version of the bill that stripped protections for LGBT women, undocumented immigrants and Native American women was defeated.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced the scaled-back version of the bill, which failed by a vote of 34-65. Among the 34 Republicans to vote for the bill were Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., the only female senator who is not a co-sponsoring the version of the VAWA that will likely be voted on on Monday.

The new protections for LGBT, immigrant and Native American women were a big reason why Republicans opposed the reauthorization bill in the last session of Congress. VAWA had been allowed to expire in September, 2011, and stalled several times over the course of 2012.'

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Comments

How about this: rename VAWA to The Domestic Violence Reduction Act and eliminate any distinction regarding gender or type of relationship (gay, straight, bi, parental, grand-parental, housemates, whatever) and then pass it. Include all 50 states and US territories and protectorates, and for the love of Pete, include the Indian tribal lands too.

Or is that too bloody simple a solution?

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Submitted by Matt on Mon, 2013-02-11 00:37

Republicans are being stupid if they're rejecting the bill for the stated reasons. Including LGBT and Native Americans makes sense.

The problem is the approach and the name are not gender-neutral. The VAWA is based on the old feminist belief that domestic violence is something men do to women. It thus intentionally ignores the scientific evidence that DV is something men and women do to each other. It's a human problem, not a "man" problem. And there's little evidence it's been effective at reducing DV. An entirely new approach is needed based on social research, not disproved feminist theories.

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Submitted by el cid on Mon, 2013-02-11 01:21