By Brian Browdie

 

Law first passed in 1994 that provides protections for victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking

 

A Wisconsin congresswoman hoped to gain support for a domestic abuse law by sharing her own story of sexual abuse and rape.

 

During a House floor speech on Wednesday, Rep. Gwen Moore, a Wisconsin Democrat, told her tale as part of her party's push to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, a federal law first passed in 1994 that provides protections for victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking.

 

Though the act has been reauthorized twice in the past 18 years, legislation to extend it a third time faces resistance from some Republicans. They have questioned provisions that would broaden protections for immigrants and abuse victims on Indian reservations.

 

"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," said Moore, a legislator from Milwaukee who served in the Wisconsin legislature before being elected to the U.S. Congress in 2004.

 

Moore said the bill's passing the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in February without Republican support rekindled her own "terrible memories of having boys sit in a locker room and sort of bet that I, the egghead, 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 added.

 

Though Moore's revelation was met with kudos from colleagues and commenters in the Twittersphere, it may not be enough to overcome opposition to the measure in the GOP-led House.

 

A companion bill has attracted bipartisan support in the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid hopes to bring the legislation to the floor this month, his spokesman told Bloomberg News.

 

"The Republican leadership has no intention of blocking fair consideration of this bill," Sen. Charles Grassley, the Judiciary Committee's top Republican, said in a statement. He added "there must be fair process" that includes consideration of a GOP-backed alternative.

 

The White House called on Congress to pass the legislation, which President Barack Obama has said he will sign into law.

 

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