VAWA

            I have chosen to write about The Violence Against Women reauthorization bill to a female-identifying audience. Ideally, this audience would be a blogging community so that they may interact with my statements and remarks. I got the article from the Huffington Post. Jennifer Bendery wrote the piece, titled VAWA: Senate Overwhelmingly Passes Violence Against Women Act. I wanted to recreate the article in a way that young women would be able to understand and feel a sense of empowerment from it.

Hello, my female and female-identifying friends. We no longer need to be afraid of reporting abuse. We do not need to ask ourselves “who will help us?” if something, God forbid, may occur. Finally, I am pleased to inform you all that Washington has recently passed and approved the Violence Against Women reauthorization bill, as well as acknowledging some key amendments that were not accepted last year.

This bill was originally created in 1994 and has helped various programs stay afloat to provide help towards those who have been abused. The reauthorization bill was not passed grudgingly or reluctantly, but with an overwhelming vote of 78 to 22. A handful of republicans who had recently opposed the bill and voted against it put pen to paper and supported us this year. Our voices are finally being heard.  I’m happy to report that the decision to pass this act was achieved by both democrats and republicans; in other words it was a bipartisanship effort. This is a huge step for congress, and shines a hopeful light for victims of abuse. $659 million will be authorized to various Violence Against Women Act programs over the next 5 years.

For the first time, protection will be granted to LGBT and Native American victims. People, with the same rights as you and I, are finally being included and noticed under the eyes of the law. There will be a shift in focus on sexual assault prevention. I am not sure on what types of preventative measures they are planning to enforce, however I hope they stray away from victim blaming. We should not have to worry about the way we dress or act, am I right, ladies? Assault is assault no matter how revealing our clothing may be.

There is also a section of the bill that that pertains to targeting human trafficking and offering grants to children who are victims of trafficking. Of course, congress is far from perfect. Undocumented victims will still be denied protection, even if the perpetrator of their abuse was a citizen of the United States. Senator Leahy states, "If you're the victim, you don't want to think that a lot of us who have never faced this kind of problem, sat here in this body and said, 'Well, we have to differentiate which victims America will protect.'" Even though protection towards undocumented victims will not be appearing in the bill, Leahy is determined to get it through legislation and we should be behind them 100%. Victims deserve protection, no matter what their citizenship status may be. Our fight is not over yet, but we are making progress. Women are slowly but surely being acknowledged by our government, and we should not rest until we are all given the same rights and protections under the law.