The US Department of Justice (DOJ) recently required that organizations applying for funding under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) certify that they will comply with executive orders that are hateful and discriminatory. A nationwide coalition of domestic violence and sexual assault organizations, represented by Democracy Forward, has filed a lawsuit against the DOJ challenging this requirement, and The Network/La Red is one of two Massachusetts domestic violence organizations that agreed to be named in the lawsuit as having been impacted. Accepting these terms would mean:
- Ending our hiring of transgender and gender nonconforming staff.
- No longer offering respectful, affirming services to transgender and gender nonconforming survivors.
- Ending work with immigrant survivors, especially those who are undocumented.
- Ending training, technical assistance, and leadership development that focus on transgender and gender nonconforming survivors.
- Abandoning our anti-oppression principles.
Complying with these conditions would require us to fundamentally change our staff, the communities we serve, and force us into impossible choices, but we will always choose our integrity and our community. Partner abuse exists to achieve and maintain control and perpetuates the same oppression we continue to experience at the whim of these administrations that utilize and reward imperialist abuse of power to control and exploit groups of people. The Network/La Red links domestic violence to all other forms of violence, oppression and abuse, because the values and tactics behind each are identical. Abuse is abuse, and appeasing abusers is not a choice. We refuse to do the administration’s work for them. We refuse to betray our communities to receive funding.
We gave up VAWA funding for our Transitional Housing Program because we could not comply with these harmful anti-trans, anti-immigrant, and racist orders. Because of this, our Transitional Housing program will be losing $150,000 dollars, which translates to 6 beds for survivors in need. This is more than a third of the space that we do have and will directly impact the lives of many survivors who are seeking housing due to partner abuse.
Survivors deserve services that affirm and respect their full humanity—not political conditions that erase them. We stand with our communities, and we will ALWAYS stand with survivors.
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