The House of Representatives Fails Women, A Story in .GIFs

F**k it, I give up. I can’t use my words anymore.

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is was a piece of legislation that created government provisions for funding/supporting the protection of women against violent acts, such as investigating and prosecuting perpetrators of violence against women, as well as ensuring restitution. It is was a law, with its own office in the Department of Justice (RIP).

Even though the Senate renewed the VAWA less than a year ago, the House of Representatives let it expire, which means it’s not in effect anymore. And by “House of Representatives” I mean “the Republicans in the House of Representatives” since they were the ones who refused to bring it up for renewal.

Now, let’s be fair. The White House wouldn’t sign the House’s measure. Admittedly, the Republican side of the bipartisan authorship rewrote some provisions so that the VAWA pretty much read like 1950 threw up all over the words until all the common decency went away, so I see where the White House is coming from on this one.

But they had reasons! Three new provisions had been written in, and they were apparently unacceptable to House Republicans. The three provisions that threaten everyone ever were:

1. New protections for LGBTQ women!

 2. Protections for immigrants, regardless of citizenship status!

3. Protections for Native American women!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. These are your House Republicans. The dudes who think that not supporting Native American, immigrant and LGBTQ women is more important than ensuring the safety of women nationwide.

Biden sat down with House Majority leader Eric Cantor and tried to negotiate with him, but no dice. No rights advocating for vaginas, you guys! There are people to screw over with legislation and only 24 hours in the day to do it! And stop saying vagina, it is a dirty, medical term that has no place in Congress! Next thing you’ll be using words like “uterus” and “ovaries” to discuss women’s reproductive rights, and we’ll all have a medical convention on our hands.

Let’s all stop and take a moment to consider that we need special legislation to protect women, because it’s somehow not inherent in our legal system that we’re people too and therefore get to be treated as such. Domestic abuse and rape are so prevalent that we need special government funding just to deal with its fallout. And now we don’t even get that, because if we want all women to have access to the same protections, regardless of their demographic, well that’s just outrageous, apparently.

But hey, on the bright side, I guess time travel is possible! Let’s keep it up you guys, with any luck we can wear corsets and not have rights by this time next year!