Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) on Wednesday recalled her own experiences of being sexually abused during a speech in favor the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

 

“Violence against women is as American as apple pie,” she said on the House floor. “I know, not only as a legislator, but from my own personal experience. Domestic violence has been a thread throughout my personal life, up to and including being a child repeatedly sexually assaulted, up to and including being an adult who’s been raped.”

 

“When this bill came out of the Senate Judiciary Committee with all of the Republican senators — all of the guys — voting no, it really brought up some terrible memories for me.”

 

 

Moore recounted a childhood experience in which boys sat in a locker room and bet that she “couldn’t be had.”

 

“And then the appointed boy, when he saw that I wasn’t going to be so willing, completed a date-rape and then took my underwear to display it to the rest of the boys,” she continued. “I mean, this is what American women are facing.”

 

The VAWA, originally passed in 1994 and reauthorized twice since, provides funding to local communities to improve their response to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking. The federal grants from the law support law enforcement training, victim services, transitional housing, and legal assistance.

 

Republicans oppose the current reauthorization bill because it would allow battered undocumented immigrants to claim temporary visas and expand protections to same sex couples.

 

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