California Health & Safety Code excludes men from domestic violence services

[Brent]

-------- Original Message --------
Tue, 31 May 2005 17:12:45 -0700
From: "S.A. Green"
To: [email protected]

Dear Daily Journal Editor,

I am certified as an advocate for victims of domestic violence.  For ten
years I have conducted domestic violence advocates' training for the
YWCA in Walla Walla, Washington. I was the first male survivor of
domestic violence to give the opening keynote presentation to a
professional conference on family violence at an event co-sponsored by
the University of Georgia and the Family Advocacy Program of Fort
Benning, in 2004.  In the early 1990s, I served on the Public
Information Committee of the Los Angeles County Domestic Violence
Council.

I became involved in domestic violence issues after an experience
in Los Angeles County that was similar to that of Mr. Eldon Ray
Blumhorst.  
("Rejection of Tester-Standing Deals Added Blow to Battered Men,"
5/26/05.)  It is painful for me to read that this injustice is still
continuing in California.

In December 1990, when I lived in Southern California, my now former
wife--who weighed about 80 pounds more than me--assaulted me in our
family car, causing lacerations and contusions from my groin to my head,
front and back, and internal injuries which required emergency room
treatment
13 days later.  The right portion of my rib cage was displaced more than
two inches out of alignment.  I was traumatized, afraid for my life, and
needed immediate help.  But when I called numerous domestic violence
programs
in Los Angeles County, they all refused to help or advocate for me
because
I was a man.  Months later, the director of one program apologized and
said that it was part of their training to treat men as perpetrators.
These
programs received millions of dollars of taxpayer money but revictimize
clients because of gender.

I did not receive the emergency services I needed.  The California Crime
Victims' Compensation program eventually found me eligible for services,
including reimbursement for psychological treatment, but there were no
advocates to help me with the burdensome paperwork.  I remain
emotionally  damaged to this day by the experience.

Reading about the Blumhorst decision reminded me of all the other men
who experience the same thing every day and whose needs are discounted
in our society.  I was especially shocked to read that the California
Health and Safety Code excludes men from emergency domestic violence
services;
this is appalling, after decades of effort to make policies gender
inclusive in nearly every other conceivable program.  In my view,
programs which
receive taxpayer money should not have the luxury of deciding to deny
service to clients on the basis of race, or religion, or gender.

Stanley Green

International Victims' Resources Advocate
SAFE:  "Our Name is Our Mission"
Stop Abuse For Everyone? Inc.
A Human Rights Organization
P.O. Box 95
College Place, WA  99324-0095  USA
Voice phone: 509-529-9806
e-mail: [email protected]
SAFE website:
http://www.safe4all.org/

The National Crime Prevention Council honors SAFE
with inclusion in the publication:
"50 Strategies To Prevent Violent Domestic Crime"
http://store.yahoo.com/mcgruff/50strattopre.html

SAFE is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit corporation.