Tag: Jennifer Wexton

AV-10 Roundtable: Domestic Violence During Covid-19

TimeHorse May 8, 2020 No Comments

My Congresswoman, Jennifer Wexton, had a panel discussion on an topic that is very important to me. I remain scared in my situation not just because of the hypochondriac in my situation but also as I am unpaid next week. I have a second-line manager who is actively trying to fire me for being 75 minutes late when I was stuck in Ubers and Tesla was trying to bankrupt me. I am very stressed right now.

To be clear, my issue is just her having paranoia over SARS-CoV-2 combined with abusive “jealousy” that tries to keep me at home and under her finger which under the Shelter In Place. But my situation is not violent, and I will be alright. I am worried about the mainly women who are with male, physical abusers with no way out. So, please, forget what I’ve said about myself and let’s focus on the real problem here, when women are forced to be with their male abusers 24/7.

Jennifer is joined by Buta Biberaj, Saly Fayez, Mayra Jane Martinez, and Jonathan Yglesias. I was very happy to hear them mention the increased risk factors when an abuser is always home, and how folks who have English as a second language. It was great hearing how Law Enforcement is aware of these issues and are working hard to assess each situation individually and being very mindful of the increased dangers.

One thing I feel most acutely is the problem women face in terms worrying they don’t have enough money to leave. It’s most distressing that it’s money that binds a victim to her abuser, just as a diminishing savings account being the reason I’m stuck. Money has always been a problem for victims to leave, but in this case, her abuser may be unemployed or furloughed, and so money for the whole family is tighter than normal, making things all the more dangerous. What’s worse is with ACTS having to shut down shelters, and with social distancing, it’s been hard to find places to help women in need.

Another serious issues is, without physicians or schools to monitor children to detect child abuse, it means that child abuse is going on under the radar, and thus number are down but there’s no reason to assume incidents are also down.

I’m holding a virtual roundtable discussion on domestic violence during #COVID19 with law enforcement and local service providers. Tune in right here on Facebook to join us for this important conversationā¬‡

Posted by Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton on Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Ladies, please be safe and know that there is hope, and there are people willing to help. Jennifer is right, you don’t have to live like this. Equal means equal, and we should all be equally free of abuse.

Coffee with the Congresswoman, Jennifer Wexton

TimeHorse May 3, 2020 No Comments

I was busy with two events already when Congresswoman Wexton held this interesting Coffee with the Congresswoman event with one of my favourite Virginia Delegates, Cia Price, and Tram Nguyen with New Virginia Majority.

One of the most important issues in the age of SARS-CoV-2 is voting access when polling places are such potential vectors for disease. Last week, I was past of a phone town hall with State Senator Barbara Favola. I was very happy to learn that Governor Ralph Northam is considering holding a special session of the General Assembly this September to ask the them to vote on universal vote-by-mail. This is something Virginia needs! After all, it already works very well in Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, and Hawaii.

Delegate Price agrees. She has stood with me on a number of other important non-partisan voting rights bills, such as the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact and two bills to develop a non-partisan way of generating legislative districts. Another bill would have set up a nonpartisan redistricting commission. The committee would have begun as soon as one July, to start the process of determining the 2021 districts. Unfortunately, that bill failed. However, she was able to pass legislation which made most forms of packing and cracking illegal while still protecting the spirit of the Voting Rights Act.

Now it remains to see if we can give Virginia a more streamlined vote-by-mail process. The main issue is to remove the onerous signature requirement. Also, as Tran points out, we need to make sure folks who are visually impaired can vote. If people change residences without informing the Commonwealth, they shouldn’t be dropped from the voting rolls. We also need to consider people who are just used to voting in person on election day. One solution is to maintain opened polling locations on election day, but by default allow everyone to vote-by-mail with no signature nor an excuse, and not dropping anyone because the voting invitation mail bounces.

Or, if we do still need a signature, I suppose I could ask my voting buddy Rachel to take care of mine, as I take care of hers.

I’m live right now with Delegate Cia Price and Tram Nguyen, Co-executive Director of New Virginia Majority, to talk…

Posted by Jennifer Wexton on Saturday, May 2, 2020

Every mail-in-vote equal, and one person one letter containing a vote. That’s one goal we at the NPVIC must strive for.

House of Representatives passes HJ79

TimeHorse February 13, 2020 1 Comment

Since 2018 I have been advocating for the adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment. Well, that is to say, since 2018 I have been advocating in my adulthood as I was a staunch ERA advocate back in the early 1980s when I was so gutted it didn’t make it. But yes, I have been going down to Richmond since 2018 to get the General Assembly of Virginia to pass the ERA.

ERA Lobbying in 2018
Here I am with my friend Emily Haines to lobby for the ERA in 2018
Photo from Fredericksburg.com

Fast forward to 2020 and the Virginia General Assembly finally ratifies the ERA. I have many photos from that day including one awesome photo with Jennifer Carroll Foy, but I’ll save those for another day. Instead, I want to talk about the passage of HJ79, the House of Representatives bill to remove the ERA deadline. My dear friend, Lisa A. Sales, was able to get gallery tickets for a bunch of us ERA supporters to attend the hearing on the House floor with none other than my friend and Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton presiding. Unfortunately, I have no photos from that as electronics aren’t allowed in the House Gallery, but you can see it on CSPAN.

The vote itself was very harrowing. At first there was a voice vote, but a Republican member of Congress called for a Recorded Vote. The acting Speaker, who had moved on from Wexton, held the vote open past the 15 minute mark to give all but 20 members of Congress time to vote. At first, the yay votes were ahead. But then around the 80 mark, the nay votes overtook the yay votes and we were gutted. But in the end, the final total was 232 (56%) for and 183 (44%) against. At 218 yay, though, we knew we had it. 5 Republicans joined 227 Democrats to pass HJ79 in the House!

However, I was able to catch up with a bunch of my fellow ERA advocates at a special event in the House.

Celebrating ERA Passage with the Deltas
These are some of my ERA friends and allies. The Delta Sigma Theta sorority, Inc has long been an advocate of passage and I was happy to work with them for this passage and be in this photo with them and their fellow allies

We Finally, our supporters in Congress were there to celebrate with us. I was very happy to meet Abigail Spanberger, Carolyn Maloney, and Jackie Speier as well as (not pictured) former Republican Illinois State Representative Steve Andersson, who was instrumental in getting Illinois to be the 37th state.

Spanberger, Maloney, and Speier
Congresswomen Abigail Spanberger, Carolyn Maloney, and Jackie Speier have been longtime advocates for the ERA and are instrumental for getting HJ79 to remove the ERA deadline passed through the House of Representatives

It was great seeing Ellie Smeal and of course my friends on fighting to make Georgia the 39th. But also, it was so wonderful to catch up with my good friend Eileen Davis. Eileen is a longtime advocate of the ERA too and what’s more, she raised a very politically savvy daughter. None other than Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, pictured above. One of my highlights is always to have long chats with Eileen, she’s such a font of knowledge.

When it was time to go, we said our goodbyes. The last person I saw was Lisa. Thank you Lisa, and thank you everyone! You are all wonderful!

Now, on to the Senateā€¦