GOP Congresswoman Blackburn: "I Opposed Domestic Violence Bill Because It Protected Too Many Groups"
thinkprogress.orgRep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Monday openly admitted that she opposed the latest reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) because it included protections for LGBT, Native American, and undocumented victims of domestic violence.
In an appearance on MSNBC, Blackburn pointed out that the latest iteration of the law protects “different groups” and thus dilutes funding for straight, non-Native American women with the proper documentation:
When you start to make this about other things it becomes an “against violence act” and not a targeted focus act… I didn’t like the way it was expanded to include other different groups. What you need is something that is focused specifically to help the shelters and to help out law enforcement, who is trying to work with the crimes that have been committed against women and helping them to stand up.
Watch it:
Domestic violence is domestic violence, period. And there is no way to justify Blackburn’s suggestion that some victims of this violence are more deserving than others.
Additionally, the reauthorized VAWA includes provisions to prevent serial rapists and similar abusers from preying on Native American women. If Blackburn considers Native American women a “different group,” then it’s one she should be most concerned about: Three out of every five Native American women has been assaulted by an intimate partner.
“When I was very young, my sisters and I were removed from the reservation where we lived. The reservation was the world, and I didn't think anything else existed. Then one day, strangers showed up, put our stuff into garbage bags, and drove us off. And the more they drove, the more our world disappeared into nothing. They brought us to this horrible place where we were basically tortured for four years.”
—Says Denise Altvater, a Native American who was taken away from her reservation. It all started when White Church Groups relocated Native children and taught them to be ashamed of their culture, in Maine, in the early 1870’s.
In 1958, the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Child Welfare League of America began a 10-year “experiment” to place 1,000 Indian children in the foster care of white families. While the federal government initially thought the experiment would be a success, Native Americans have called it cultural genocide.
How can taking children away from their families and teaching them to hate their own culture and deny them the right to practise their own religion be “success”? Like the Native Americans say themselves, it’s nothing more than cultural genocide. (Read the entire article here)
