Senator Feinstein on the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, 2011

Back in the early 1980's, Senator (Mayor at the time) Feinstein helped open the first battered women's center in San Francisco. I remember when Harvey Milk was shot and she stepped up. She showed the courage to close the SF bath houses, which was extremely unpopular! HIV and AIDS were just starting to be discovered in the US. So, here she is again, speaking very eloquently on the reauthorization of VAWA and the protection of women (and men) who are victims of violence from intimate partners. In California, 30,000 people accessed crisis services from in 2010 and 2011. 24 people per minute are targets of rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner, according to the latest data from the Center for Disease Control. No Republican members of the Judiciary Committee voted to extend the funding legislation. The bill has created a very modest new grant program, it consolidates other grant programs and reduces costs by 17%. It encourages the enforcement of restraining orders and the purchase of rape kits. It also provides explicitly that these services must be provided to lesbians, gay men and immigrants (no matter what their legal status may be.) Senator Feinstein summed it up perfectly,"Is the violence any less real because the victim is lesbian or gay or an illegal immigrant? I don't think so. This bill is a no-brainer." I agree. Please contact your federal representatives now? Thanks!