One of the One Billion Rising
For months I’ve been wound up about Congress’s failure to reauthorize the landmark Violence Against Women Act.
The law was first passed in 1994, and reauthorized without incident in 2000 and 2005. It worked. More women had access to more protection from violence and abuse.
When it was time to reauthorize VAWA in 2011, additional provisions were added to offer protection to groups who need it–LGBT people, Native Americans, and immigrants. All of these groups experience intimate traumas at equal or greater rates than the rest of the population. That’s when the trouble began. The law has become stuck in the mire of partisanship.
Even as I cheered the bill’s passage in the Senate on Tuesday, I fumed.
Do the 22 male senators who voted against it have no sisters, daughters, or mothers? Is protecting states’ rights to allocate funding and the rights of American-citizen men who commit rape or battering or sexual abuse on tribal lands more important than protecting the women who are or would be the victims of violent intimate crimes?
And I was frustrated with myself for my own supposed politeness and my unwillingness to write here about politics.
I went to the gym, and read the quote at the bottom of the white board:
I am angry enough to leave my polite no-overt-political-talk comfort zone.
Angry at the 22 Republican men of the Senate, including Florida’s Marco Rubio, who voted no. Angry at the news media that was too obsessed with a manhunt in California to give this issue any real coverage. Angry at the House which hasn’t even scheduled a vote.
Angry that one in three women on the planet will experience violence–sexual abuse, rape, domestic violence–in her lifetime.
That’s one billion women.
Today we rise.
I’ll see you outside the comfort zone.
4 Comments
Tammy Dial Gray
I am so proud of you! Thank you for standing up for all of those who need your voice, your courage and your willingness. xo
Angela Kelsey
Thanks, Tammy, as always, for your encouragement and support! xo
Paula
I am over from Canopy in the Sunlight. I am German married to an American who abused me upon my arrival in the USA and been married to him for 36h. I fled him after 7 months, mostly wondering what to do as I had given up all and everything to move over. Now 18 months later I am still struggling big time and I am diagnosed with narcissistic abuse syndrome. I have self petitioned under VAWA and I am client of Tahirih.org a legal justice center supporting women fleeing violence. Like you I had a hard time to leave the comfort zone particularly as my case is still pending. Yet my lawyer is an adviser to the VAWA unit at the Dep of Justice and I have had the opportunity to write and present my story. Only recently I managed to get a protection order that he can not stalk me online anymore- means my new blog is still new and me still cautious as several court dates are ahead of me.
I congratulate you on writing your story and I wonder whether you would like to get in touch with NIkki – she is a friend of mine and a survivor of severe abuse. She has successfully published her book. Her link is:
http://write2empower.webs.com/
She has struggled hard during the process of writing and publishing and surely has an open ear for you. Feel free to use my name.
Love from my heart to yours.
Paula
Angela Kelsey
Paula,
Thank you for reading and commenting. I applaud your willingness and courage to blog and tell your story publicly. Thanks also for suggesting that I get in touch with Nikki. I will introduce myself to her.
Love and best wishes to you,
Angela