Feminist DV service providers fight for cash and control, not equality

October 9, 8:41 PMFamily Rights ExaminerTeri Stoddard

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For years men have been claiming discrimination by feminist domestic violence service providers.  See Dirty little secrets of domestic violence programs.

Law enforcement training is usually provided by these same agencies, causing discrimination to start at the first point of contact.  Some men say they were bruised and bleeding when they were arrested during domestic violence calls after their wound-free female partners claimed fear.  See Sex appeal blinds protectors of justice and The Face of Men Abused by Women. 

Abused men with children are routinely turned away from protection shelters, just for having the wrong genitalia.  And some fathers are prevented from seeing their children after mothers claim they're being stalked, even from thousands of miles away.  See Abducted child's father faces prison for peaceful protest and Clinton ignores parents of children abducted to the US.

Today, men and the women who love them have reason to celebrate.  On October 2 Men and Women Against Discrimination won a lawsuit against Family Services Board of West Virginia.  (Ruling here.)  The court decided that FSB's approach had, "a substantial chilling effect of suppressing their members expression of speech, thoughts and ideas relative to domestic violence by depriving them even of the opportunity to obtain certified services.”

FSB had set up a system of approving service providers that eliminated anyone who didn't agree with their principles.  Providers were required to take 30 hours of training, part of which was to learn, "the understanding that domestic violence is deeply rooted in historical attitudes toward women."  The problem is that statement has no bearing on reliable studies.

A year ago on October 13 California's Third District Court of Appeals also ruled in favor of abused men, saying a state funded facility violated their rights when it turned away Dave Woods and his daughter.  The National Coalition For Men lead the charge. 

This wasn't the first time feminist DV service providers in California fought equality to keep control over available DV funding.  A few years earlier the LGBT community attempted to rewrite California's domestic violence laws with AB 2051 to make them gender neutral.  According to the bill analysis:

This bill was originally drafted to make the existing grant program (funded by $23 added on to marriage license fees) gender-neutral and thus ensure that DV shelters catering to the LGBT community have a competitive chance to obtain grants from the DHS. However, the severe deficiency in funding of domestic violence shelters that provide services to battered women and their children caused an outcry among the existing domestic violence shelter providers. Subsequently, the bill was amended to create a separate fund for DV programs that are specific to the LGBT community.

Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting (RADAR,) a non-profit non-partisan organization of both genders working to improve our nation's approach to solving domestic violence says the problem stems from the blatantly gender biased Violence Against Women Act.  Their latest campaign "Restore Civil Rights to Domestic Violence Laws" shows how domestic violence laws violate Constitutional protections found in the First Amendment (right to assembly and to free speech), Second Amendment (right to bear arms), Fourth Amendment (probable cause for arrest), Fifth Amendment (due process), and Fourteenth Amendment (equal treatment under the law.)

Until the Federal govt fixes this at the top by renaming and reconstructing the Violence Against Women People Act, lawsuits like this will unfortunately need to continue across the country.  When they won their case last year, NCFM attorney Marc Angelucci told ABC-7, "These programs will often still reach out to victims in a gender-specific manner, only referring to them as women and that doesn't help the male victims come forward. This is really going to take a long time and more lawsuits to change"

Domestic violence laws violate Americans’ civil rights when they:

1. Provide incentives to file false allegations
2. Fund education and training programs that stereotype all men as abusers
3. Expand the definition of “domestic violence” to include minor verbal disagreements, thus inviting heavy-handed state intervention into private family matters
4. Short-circuit due process protections and remove the presumption of innocence
5. Encourage the issuance of restraining orders, even in the absence of physical violence
6. Promote mandatory arrest policies, even for minor violations of civil restraining orders
7. Fund “primary aggressor” policies that profile men as abusers
8. Support mandatory prosecution policies
9. Refuse legal assistance to persons falsely accused of domestic violence.
10. Discriminate against male victims

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