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Written by WiG
Feb 5, 2012
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has approved the LGBT-inclusive reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
The reauthorization bill, according to the Human Rights Campaign, would make grants available for strengthening and enlarging programs to provide outreach and services to LGBT victims of domestic violence.
Additionally, the bill would prohibit grantees of VAWA funds from discriminating against survivors because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
“Victims of domestic violence need assistance, not irrational barriers based on their sexual orientation or gender identity,” said HRC’s Joe Solmonese.
He said the U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who chairs the committee, “has shown great leadership in reauthorizing VAWA and ensuring that the bill would explicitly make grants available for service providers doing innovative work with LGBT victims.”
Studies indicate that LGBT people experience domestic violence at roughly the same rate as the general population. But many LGBT victims do not receive the services they need because service providers and law enforcement are not engaged in outreach to the LGBT community, lack the cultural competency to effectively work with LGBT victims or do not have funding to provide culturally competent services.
In one survey of service providers who work with LGBT victims, 85 percent reported they have worked with an LGBT victim that was denied services because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity.
Leahy and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, introduced the reauthorization act in the Senate last November, nearly 20 years after the original bill was signed into law. The law was reauthorized in 2000 and again in 2005, but expired in September 2011.
