VAWA and the Privilege to Vote Republican

So there's this bill called VAWA or the Violence Against Women Act, and it's an act that essentially increases protection for women who are victims of domestic abuse (it could be broader than that – I'm not sure). Now according to ncdsv.org, VAWA is a misnomer, because the most liberal version of the act protects people of all genders and sexual orientations. So naturally, in January of 2012 the Republicans were all into killing the parts of the bill that protects people who are of non-hetero sexual orientations, AS WELL AS the parts that protect American Indian women living in sovereign Indian Country, and my school sponsored my going to the capitol (with a few classmates) to lobby for the full version of the bill. Now it's February of 2013 and their attempts have made headlines.

And I must say, this cannot possibly be reflective of the views of the people. Most of us are for marriage equality, so I can assume a bigger chunk of us want to protect our peers, Queer or not, from violence. And it occurs to me that the Republicans are allowed to do this simply because of privilege and apathy. In fact, generally, they are allowed to swing so far to the right socially because of privilege and apathy. And of course, the reluctance to protect Indian women frankly blows my mind and reinforces that premise. 

"Don't vote on 'hot-button' social issues," cry the fiscal conservatives, and thus, bills like VAWA get gutted and the congresspeople who approve such gutting get reelected because of their supposed fiscal prudence. Yeah, well, that's real easy to say when VAWA already protects you. Hard to say when you're trans* or Indian. 

So yeah. I'm just here to say, vote on social issues. Vote vote vote on them. We MUST draw the line somewhere on human rights abuses. 

Here's the link – Republicans, I'm disappointed. 

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/02/23/house-gop-strips-lgbt-native-american-provisions-in-vawa/