National Association of the Deaf

Submitted by Erin.Esposito on Mon, 07/06/2009 - 15:16

“Growing up in a small Alaska town, domestic violence was that dirty little secret nobody talked about. We must start talking about it. For too long, we have been providing protection to the wrong people.” –Senator Lisa Murkowski

Two recent and significant developments in Washington, DC have signaled a crucial turn in the tide with regard to the national crisis of Domestic Violence – the White House’s appointment of Lynn Rosenthal as the new Advisor on Violence Against Women and the House of Representatives’ bill which would amend the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to allow leave to address domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking and their effects, and to include domestic partners under that Act, and for other purposes.

Vice-President Joe Biden is a staunch advocate in the war against domestic violence, as evidenced by his architecting and authoring the original Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which has since its inception, been reauthorized twice. President Obama and Vice-President Biden, by the mere creation of this position that Rosenthal has assumed, have sent a strong message to our Congressional leaders and to the people of America that there remains much work to be done in making our communities safer for all.

Rosenthal comes to Washington by way of New Mexico, where she most recently served as the Executive Director of the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Prior to that, she served as the Executive Director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) where she represented 54 state and territorial coalitions whose collective membership included more than 2000 local domestic violence programs. She played a major role in the reauthorization of VAWA in 2000 and 2005. I wish her all the best in her endeavors with this daunting task.

Representative Lynn Woolsey from California, along with co-sponsors Rep. Al Green (TX), Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA), Rep. Joe Sestak (PA), Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY), and Rep. Janice Schakowsky (IL), have composed H.R. 2515 which has the short title of “Domestic Violence Leave Act” (DVLA).

The DVLA, if passed by Congress and signed into Law by President Obama, would Amend FMLA to entitle an eligible employee, his or her same-sex spouse, or domestic partner to up to 12 work weeks of leave during any 12-month period: 1.) to care for such individual’s family member, if the family member is addressing domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking and their effects; or 2.) because such individual is addressing such matters, he or she is unable to perform any of the functions in his or her position.

If this bill is passed and signed into law, it will be, perhaps, the second most important federal legislation ever enacted with regards to Domestic Violence. VAWA was the stepping-stone and has opened the doors for much more progress to be made. The NAD has gone on record in support of VAWA including ratifications that followed. I am confident they will go on record in support of H.R. 2515 as well. The NAD is a phenomenal advocate on behalf of all deaf and hard of hearing individuals and has always fought the good fight for legislation and access for our people. But we cannot expect NAD to do all the advocating – we must take it upon ourselves to speak up and show our support in the promotion of legislation such as with H.R. 2515.

I strongly urge you all to contact your local Congressional Representatives and ask them to support the bill. When the bill makes it out of the House of Representatives, it will then go to the Senate, which will then require us to contact our Senators and ask for their support in the passing of the bill.

This war’s battlefield is not in some other country, it’s in our own homes. It’s time to stop protecting the wrong people – the abusers – and start protecting the right people. Either we can be a part of the problem by not talking about it and not doing anything about it, or we can be a part of the solution by taking action. As a Deaf survivor, it is my deepest hope and desire that you’ll choose the latter.

Resources:

• Abused Deaf Women Advocacy Services (ADWAS)
• DeafHope
• Deaf Abused Women’s Network (DAWN)
• Advocacy Services for Abused Deaf Victims (ASADV)