CALL TO ACTION: domestic violence legislation halted in Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

As I interned for PA Representative Babette Josephs (D-182) this past summer, I continue to receive some information about the legislative activity of the House. (You can, too, by visiting the official website of the General Assembly.) Today, I received an email alerting me to the fact that a simple resolution proposed to designate October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month was halted on the House floor by Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-12) for having a homosexual agenda. He was quoted in the CapitolWire as saying, "I protest, this is not non-controversial, and if you read the language it has a homosexual agenda."

Ummmmm, we are not quite sure how a resolution about domestic violence could possibly have any sort of homosexual agenda. But, just to give these outrageous claims the benefit of the doubt, we checked out the full text of the resolution. If anyone can see any sort of underlying theme of homosexuality or even EQUALITY, please, point it out to me because as far as I can tell, Metcalfe must have some amazing superpower that allows him to see words that are not visible to the naked eye.

According to the resolution,

• One in every four women and one in every nine men will experience violence in his or her lifetime.
• One in six women and one in 33 men have experienced an attempted or completed rape.
• Approximately 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the U.S.
• 30%-60% of perpetrators of intimate partner violence also abuse children in the home.
• Intimate partner violence results in more than 18.5 million mental health care visits each year.
• The cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $5.8 billion each year, $4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health services.

Act now. Pennsylvanians are demanding that Metcalfe allow a vote on the resolution and apologize for his insensitive remarks. Send a message by following this link: http://www.keystoneprogress.org/page/speakout/pametcalfe1. Domestic violence is a serious issue that affects more people than we may realize. Push for a vote on the House floor, and allow October to address domestic violence in Pennsylvania.