Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

[Ben Atherton-Zeman <>]

Hello, friends in the movement!  Yesterday, Ms. Magazine hosted a “Blog Carnival” to support Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Reauthorization!  My own piece is a short one, about homophobic attacks on VAWA by Concerned Women of America http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2012/04/24/vawa-furthers-homosexual-agenda-says-concerned-women-for-america/. 

 

But I’m writing mainly to ask for your help.  VAWA may come to the Senate floor any day now, but some are proposing amendments that would weaken it – specifically, that would weaken protections for LGBTQ, immigrant and Native survivors.  One argument from “Father’s Rights” groups is that VAWA is anti-male – these groups often claim to speak for all men.  To show this isn’t true, about 1000 men have signed this petition on Change.org: http://www.change.org/petitions/us-congress-10-000-men-supporting-the-violence-against-women-act. 

 

Thing is, we entitled the petition, “10,000 Men Supporting VAWA Reauthorization.”  So we need your help – many of us have signed it, posted it on Facebook, forwarded it to friends and so forth.  For those who haven’t, could you please do so?  And for any of you who are fraternity members (or who advise fraternities), could you see if any of them want to adopt this as a chapter? 

 

Once we get to 20,000 (figuring half the folks who sign are men), we’ll bring the signatures to Congress and let them know VAWA isn’t just a “women’s issue,” it’s a men’s issue and a human issue.  With people of all genders raising our voices, we can get a strong VAWA reauthorization. 

 

Until the violence stops,

 

Ben Atherton-Zeman: Feminist, actor, husband

Performing a one-man play “Voices of Men,” working to end sexual and domestic violence

Video clips available at http://www.voicesofmen.org