RU12? Community Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Vermont

LGBTQ Welcoming Shelter Needs Our Help

The Sexual Assault Crisis Team (SACT) of Washington County provides comprehensive services  to victims/survivors of sexual violence, including emergency shelter and transitional housing for female victims of sexual violence and male  victims of sexual or domestic violence, legal advocacy, medical  advocacy, crisis services, support groups, and educational forums; legal services are available to victims of sexual assault. 

After visiting Bobbi Gagne at the SACT shelter, I was overwhelmed by the organization's respectful, client-centered approach to assisting LGBTQ survivors of sexual violence. In over a decade of doing anti-violence work, attending national conferences, helping to coordinate an LGBTQ national coalition, and countless hours of research, I rarely came accross a shelter focusing so clearly on survivors of sexual violence. SACT does this and extends their work to be absulutely embracing of our community. 

Recently, Bobbi and her team went the extra mile and created a space in the shelter that will allow survivovrs to have a slightly longer stay in an apartment on the first floor. They want everyone who comes to feel welcomed, not just because they say that all are welcomed, but because when someone steps foot in the space, they see LGBTQ culture all around them. 

Please, if anyone has any LGBTQ items-maybe a flag, or those rainbow dishtowels you bought in PTown that you never used, or framed poster that you no longer have wall space for, please let me know. I'd love to bring them down to the shelter. I don't want to have to rent a UHaul, so call me or email me before you bring anything over to the Center. 

If you would like to know more about the ways that SACT operates or the efforts they have made to welcome our community, give me a call or email me. I know you will be as impressed as I am. 

Kim 

kim@ru12.org, 802-860-8712

Rally to Take Back the Night

RU12? Launches New Public Service Announcement!

 RU12? Community Center, is proud to announce the launch of our new public service announcement (PSA) in April as part of Sexual Violence Awareness Month.  This PSA was produced by our SafeSpace program, the only anti violence program in Vermont working to end domestic, sexual, and hate related violence in the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and HIV-affected (LGBTQH) Vermonters.

SafeSpace PSA on YouTube

A recent groundbreaking Centers for Disease Control study found that intimate partner violence and sexual violence is a pervasive problem in LGBTQH and non-LGBTQH communities, with members of the LGBTQH communities experiencing sexual and domestic violence at the same or higher rates as non-LGBTQH people.

In hate violence cases power and control can be exerted through sexual violence.  In other cases, sexual violence is part of a pick up crime where the perpetrator relies on the likelihood of the victim not reporting because he or she fears that law enforcement of mainstream providers will either out them or not take them seriously.  Sexual violence is also often a part of domestic violence where batterers rely heavily on fears of stigma and isolation.  For these and many other reason, RU12’s SafeSpace program offers specialized direct services for LGBTQH survivors of sexual violence.

If you or someone you know has experienced violence, advocates in the SafeSpace program can help provide emotional support, advocacy, information and referrals.  Advocates are available M-Th 9am-6pm and Fri. 9am-2pm at 802-863-0003 or toll free 866-869-7351.

SafeSpace Applauds the Passage of an LGBTQ-Inclusive VAWA

Today the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill re-authorizing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The House vote today reflects bi partisian support for the Senate bill which for the first time included explicit protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people.

The National Coalition of Anti Violence Programs (NCAVP), SafeSpace is a program member, has worked over two years advocating for inclusive provisions inserted into VAWA.  This victory will dramatically change our nation’s response to LGBTQ survivors of intimate partner and sexual violence.

Read more NCAVP Media Release

 

Sana (Parts 1-4)

We've asked a guest writer, Ana Hernandez, to write about her experience in a domestic violence relationship where her then girlfriend used their dog Sana as a way to inflict harm in the relationship. Ana has written a four part essay. We hope that this essay will bring to light some of the issues around domestic violence in the LGBTQ communities as well as how very deeply the animals in our lives are affected. Please note that this essay is the abridged version. If you would like to read a longer version that includes how the other dog and cat in Ana's life were affected, please let us know.

Sana
 By Ana Hernández

Part I

On the evening of September 11, 2004, I was driving my girlfriend, Jackie, and some of her friends back from the 9/11 memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.  As I pulled onto the highway, I saw, reflected in the headlights, two enormous eyes staring up from a small heap in my traffic lane.  I zoomed the van over the creature, then turned sharply into the parking lot of a truck stop, explaining, “there’s something in the road, I think it was hit.”  I ran to the spot and saw a tiny dog in the gutter, likely blown over by the 18-wheelers roaring past.  As I scooped her up, she tensed but did not resist.

GEN Silent movie about LGBT Elders available for free home screening

Last May, RU12?'s LGBT Elders Program teamed up with community partners Champlain Valley Area Health Education Cener (CVAHEC) and the Champlain Valley Agency on Aging (CVAA) to present a screening of the film GEN Silent, about several LGBT aging Americans and their struggle to feel comfortable being/remaining out in the context of getting older and accessing elders-specific services. This was one of several GEN Silent screenings statewide throughout the month of May.

Our screening was a remarkable success, with more than 100 folks coming out on a Wednesday evening for the film and following panel discussion, in order to bring attention to the issue as well as identify viable next steps, including the development of cultural competency trainings for elders service providers. RU12? will be debuting this training system this spring in the NEK, but until then, the powerful film that kickstarted our local discussions is available for free home-viewing until January 1. Check it out here: GEN Silent, or contact jean@ru12.org for more information about RU12?'s new LGBT Elders training.

RU12? SafeSpace in the News

RU12?'s Executive Director recently contributed to the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence Newsletter, writing about LGBTQ survivors of violence. Check out her article on page 2.

http://www.vtnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/Fall2012VTNetworkNewsfinal.pdf