The Senate’s version of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 was approved by the House on Thursday, Feb. 28 but not until Democratic members of Congress spoke out against the plan proposed by the House, which excluded women of Native American ancestry and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people.

 

“I pray that this body will do as the Senate has done and come together as one to protect all women from violence,” said Congresswoman Gwen Moore, a former victim of domestic and sexual violence. “As I think about the L.G.B.T. victims who are not here, the native American women who are not here, the immigrants who aren’t in this bill, I would say, as Sojourner Truth would say, ‘Ain’t they women?’ ”

 

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