Today Congress passed a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act

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February 28, 2013
 
Dear friends of AVP,
 
Congratulations and thank you!  Today Congress passed S. 47, a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which is our nation's response to domestic and sexual violence.  For the first time ever, this law will explicitly include LGBT survivors of violence. This bill represents two years of continuous work of AVP’s National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) and is a huge victory for not just survivors of violence but also all LGBT communities.
 
The Act, which President Obama has made clear he will sign into law, includes LGBT people in three significant ways:

It names LGBT people as underserved populations in need of specific attention to address the unique issues they face as survivors of intimate partner or sexual violence.

It prohibits VAWA grantee from discriminating against survivors of violence based on sexual orientation or gender identity when providing services.

It establishes a specific purpose area to address LGBT violence at the state level.

The legislation also increases protections for Native Americans, immigrants, communities of color and students.
 
This historic legislation came shortly after the Centers for Disease Control released a national prevalence survey showing that lesbian, gay and bisexual people experience violence at the same or higher rates as heterosexual people.  It comes a year after the New York City Anti-Violence Project's National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) found that transgender people experience sexual violence at twice the rate of non-transgender people...