The Violence Against Heterosexual Women Act of 1994

Current Event: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/d/domestic_violence/index.html

The Violence Against Women Act was a bipartisan law passed in 1994. It protects women against domestic violence, sexual violence, and stalking. It also supports many efforts to combat these crimes. The law had relapsed from 2011 and on. There has been a fierce battle over competing reauthorization of the bill. In April the bill was passed protecting transgender and lesbian women as well. The Republicans opposed this because they say that the bill already includes protection for all women. Republicans are upset that the bill will include protection for domestic violence with same sex couples. This month the Senate passed a bill 78-22 that is now forcing the House to act.

This is a huge issue. After all, we have already discovered that as minorities a lot depends on the government and what they say. The Republicans are trying to ignore the fact that there is oppression on transgender and lesbian women. This is something that needs to be addressed. It relates to our class because it is all about women, their rights, the injustice of it all, and the white middle aged men that we have to rely on to take care of our rights. It’s ridiculous.

This week in lecture we have been talking about violence against women. This act is put in place so that we can protect women against gendered violence. This type of violence is one that is produced from an imbalance in power between men and women and is very common. The problem is that most of the people who are making our laws are from a group that is denying the fact that there is an overabundant amount of violence towards women. In addition, they are part of the group that women are being protected against (men). This does not mean that all men are rapists but it does mean that at times they have a hard time seeing how important an issue is on the other side. I mean sexual assaults happen every 2 minutes and rapes about every 8 minutes. These are some serious statistics that our senators and representatives need to look at.

This is the ultimate in a system of oppression. They represent our country and they are saying that transgender and lesbian women are not good enough. Not only are they saying that  women do not need more protection but that lesbians and transgender peoples should not be included in this group. They are representatives of our country and they are saying that these groups are not important enough to be included in the bill. The new knowledge product is that it is time the government steps up and makes it happen. Abolish prejudices at the very top and then we won’t have these problems. It was hard enough getting the bill through for heterosexual women. God help us if we want to include transgender and lesbian women in there. It’s time there was some focus on these groups. Domestic violence can be huge in these groups and they need to be addressed. The whole thing just reaches a new level of oppression.

The whole thing just makes me incredibly sad. These politicians don’t see the need to include the minorities in the bill. It’s not like our government has to stand up for the majority anymore. After all, didn’t you hear? We’re all equal now. Equal my butt. This act needs to be passed with areas for all races, sexual orientations, and genders too. Although it is mostly women who are being abused, there are men who are being abused as well. People just laugh at them when they say a woman sexually harassed them or that their girlfriend hit them. It’s time we realize that we all deserve protection. No more and no less than others. How about a bill for that?

-Rachael Belcher