tell your Congressman to pass the Violence Against Women Act

The Violence Against Women Act is once again up for renewal in the House. On Monday the Senate passed a version of the act. This same version of the act, passed by the Senate, was voted down in the House at the end of the last session of Congress.

VAWA was first passed in 1994 to provide legal protections and funding to women who are victims of domestic violence. VAWA funds domestic violence programs across the country, as well as providing for the confidentiality of victims of DV in shelters, among other things. The last Congress allowed VAWA to expire when it came up for renewal, mostly because House Republicans oppose two new provisions of VAWA.

The first controversial provision opposed by House Republicans would extend the protections of VAWA to women in same-sex relationships. I'm not sure how one determines that the moral high road is to deny a victim of a violent crime legal protections for her safety because of her sexual orientation, but many House Republicans voted down the VAWA renewal because they opposed this provision.

The second controversial provision would allow tribal governments to prosecute people who were not members of their tribes for crimes of domestic violence committed against Native women on tribal land. Currently, if a white man assaults his Native girlfriend on a reservation, this crime is under the jurisdiction of the state, while if a Native man assaults his Native girlfriend, the tribe has jurisdiction. In practice, this means that many violent crimes that are committed by non-Native people on reservations and tribal lands are never prosecuted. Many House Republicans oppose turning jurisdiction over crimes of domestic violence on Native land to tribal governments.

Lesbian women are forced to fight for recognition of their relationships by the dominant culture, even to the point that women who are assaulted by their partners are not provided with the same legal protections as women assaulted by male partners. Native women are victims of domestic violence at rates much higher than the rest of the population; frequently these crimes are not prosecuted, even when reported to law enforcement. The Violence Against Women Act was designed to keep women in America safe. Right now, with the act expired, all women are at risk of losing essential safety measures that protect their confidentiality when they seek services for safety.

Let your Representative in Congress know how you want him or her to vote.

trauma stewardship

I am starting this blog for my class.

I am curious to see where it will lead.

Today I went to a training by Laura van Dernoot Lipsky of The Trauma Institute. She co-authored the book Trauma Stewardship. We spent the morning thinking about the way that bearing witness to trauma at our jobs affects us in our lives. For instance, it did not really occur to me that it was not normal to do a background check on everyone you date. To me it just seems smart. I know that when I bring up domestic violence at a party, it can kill the mood. I feel like I have some obligation to remind people of the atrocities that take place in our community. Now I see that my need to do this is a sign to me that my work is giving me hurts that I carry around, and can learn to metabolize. Also apparently most people don't meet couples and scan their interactions for dynamics of power and control, or suspect that men who pick up kids or put them on their laps are child molesters.

We spent the afternoon thinking about how to keep ourselves healthy, so that we can be resilient enough to keep showing up and being supportive during other people's traumas. The emphasis was on prioritizing your time so that you have islands of peace, moments when you can re-regulate your emotions and come back to a place of equilibrium. I have no idea how to do this while I work a pretty stressful job and go to school, and try to maintain relationships to the people in my life. But I think a good starting point is ending my homework now at 9 pm on Friday night and going to spend time with my friends.