DADvocate

Cathy Young has a good column concerning the reauthorization of the VAWA. Although the VAWA has some scary language concerning free speech on the Internet, small signs of progress in recognizing men's rights and men as having rights showed up.

The final version includes text that, for the first time, recognizes male victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. This is a step in the right direction of a balanced approach to family violence - but only the first step.

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No less important, the bill directs the General Accounting Office to "conduct a study to establish the extent to which men, women, youth, and children are victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking, and the availability to all victims of shelter, counseling, legal representation, and other services commonly provided to victims of domestic violence."

This is good news. As Cathy points out:

The 1996 National Violence Against Women Survey, cosponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute of Justice, found that 38 percent of the approximately 2.3 million Americans who experience partner violence every year are men

There is still a long way to go. The VAWA has been essentially a tool of radical feminists to heavily tilt the scales of justice in favor of women, whether deservedly so or not. Domestic violence services for men are a rarity. See how many protective shelters you can find for men, and then for women. Men are relegated to homeless shelters while women, even in small towns, such as Maysville, KY (population less than 10,000), have women's shelters. Try to find one for men (other than a homeless shelter) in a city ten times that size. You won't.