One Man’s Fight to Protect Women: Part 1 of an Interview with Mr. Ron LeGrand
It takes a village to protect victims of abuse and assault. That village by necessity requires the strong support of men who care deeply about the lives of women. These are men who recognize that they were born of women, that women are the glue that keeps families together and are often the strength of communities. They know that without strong and healthy women and girls, we imperil our future.
I had the privilege to interview one such man who has been working hard for over a decade to keep women safe through legislative and advocacy efforts.
Mr. LeGrand is an attorney and consultant who served as a lead Democratic Counsel in the House of Representatives working on the reauthorizations of the Violence Against Women Act and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which were passed and signed into law by President Obama in March 2013. After leaving Capitol Hill, Mr. LeGrand joined the National Network to End Domestic Violence as its VP of Public Policy.
In addition to his current consulting work, Mr. LeGrand engages strongly with organizations that are supporting boys and men to make good choices, and to redefine masculinity in a way that supports the health of the entire community, including its women.
Below are some excerpts from our interview which will be available on the podcast Life After Abuse Pod in the coming weeks.
What brought you to work on these very important issues related to women?
About nine or 10 years ago, I was working on Capitol Hill as counsel to the House and I had been working on crime issues, drugs, firearms, that kind of thing. It came to my attention that the Violence Against Women Act, which was initially passed in 1994 was up for reauthorization. So I started working on that, and in the course of doing that, I was meeting with advocates who work through the various domestic violence organizations. But the ones who had the greatest impact on me were the actual survivors of domestic violence. They are the ones who can come and talk to you firsthand about what they've been through.
How did the victim’s stories impact you?
It [abuse] is a pain that takes a long time to subside, if it ever subsides. They struggled with it. Very often they were embarrassed and humiliated. [Victims] Felt betrayed that someone whom they love, could hurt them.
When some of these survivors would come in with their children and you see that the children had been abused or if not abused, had witnessed the abuse of the parent, it really got to me. I didn't understand it. I felt that it made me want to do something. You work on these legislative issues, but every now and then you get into something that you find yourself getting truly emotionally involved in. Driven by. That was the case for me with domestic violence.
In general you prefer the term Abuse rather than Violence. Why?
I don't really like that term ‘domestic violence’ because I think that it's misleading. You hear domestic violence and you think that it's something that only occurs when there is an act of physical violence. It doesn't allow people to understand that it [abuse] is more than physical. [It’s] about not just physical but emotional, psychological, financial abuse, any form of abuse that inflicts harm on another person. So I prefer to talk in terms of domestic ‘abuse’, because that helps everybody understand.
Can you give an example of non-physical abuse?
A [woman] is in the process of getting out of a relationship. This guy never laid hands on her, but he abused her emotionally and he manipulated her financially. [He could] do that because she believed in him. He persuaded her to move in with him, to break a lease, to dispose of her furniture and all of her possessions. Once he got her under his roof, he ignored her. He verbally assaulted her. They separated. She got an apartment, furnished it, and he persuaded her to come back again. She broke the lease. She got rid of her furniture and she finally began to see. She was being abused, but she didn't have to wait until he hit her. He was hurting her anyway. Now she's out.
What was a major accomplishment of the 2013 VAWA reauthorization (lapsed law)?
Prior to 2013 if a tribal woman was abused by a non-tribal man on tribal lands there was nothing that could be done. The abuser was not held accountable. That was one of the things that we needed to change because we were seeing that it wasn't unusual for a tribal woman to be in a relationship with someone who was not afraid [of prosecution].
We’re on the stage [when the law] is being signed by president Obama, and a number of advocates and some survivors are on stage with him. [A] tribal woman steps forward and she's telling the audience about her personal experience. [She] had been in a relationship with someone who is not a tribal member. The abuse began and it was physical and it was harsh. It was brutal. And it happened over and over again.
There were times when after beating her, the guy would pick up the phone and call the tribal police because they were living on the reservation. He would call the tribal police and hand her the phone so that she can tell them what she had just been subjected to. She would be on that phone, barely able to talk and the response that came from the other end of the phone was: ‘Sorry, miss. There's nothing we can do.”
There were actually members of Congress who were opposed to it [expansion of rights to tribal women]. Well, we were able to get it done. [However] The tribal provision was passed with a lot of restrictions. Not every tribe was automatically included. There were certain things that tribes needed to do in order to qualify for those provisions.
How do we need to strengthen VAWA?
We included a nondiscrimination clause to make it clear that even though it's called the Violence Against Women Act, the protections are intended for everybody regardless of gender and gender identification. We want to extend that [the non-discrimination clause]. We need to strengthen the laws regarding firearms and access to firearms, and make sure that those who are convicted of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, are prohibited from possessing firearms. The firearms issue is one that we have struggled with for years and it seems that no matter what happens, no matter how horrific mass shootings are, we still cannot get any significant firearms legislation passed. [We’re] also trying to increase funding.
VAWA is stuck in the US Senate. What can citizens who care about the VAWA reauthorization do?
Go to the polls and vote. And with those who are asking for your vote, if they've been in office, then you've got to hold them accountable. I think that citizens need to look at the voting records.
What ONE thing can you do to support women today?
Email Mitch McConnell (and your state Senators!) and tell him to put VAWA back on the legislative agenda for the Senate.
