Thursday, August 06, 2009

FOX NEWS: OBJECTIVELY PRO-DOMESTIC VIOLENCE?

The folks at Fox Nation think this is a bad idea:

Federal Stimulus Funds Will be Used to Train 'Domestic Violence' Counselors for Cohabitating Homosexuals

Funds from the $787-billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will be used in Alexandria, Va., where same-sex marriage is not legal, to "train staff who work with sexual/domestic violence victims who identify themselves as member of the gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender community."

...The city was given $36,884 to train staff who work with victims of domestic violence and sexual assault about how to treat people who do not identify themselves as heterosexual....


Yes, a whopping $36,884. (The city Web site lists the grant here; the application is here.) That dollar amount is a bit more than one one-hundredth of a penny for each of the 304,059,724 residents of the United States. Don't like the grant? Hey, I'll pay your share.

As Alexandria's legislative director explains, there are issues involved in gay domestic violence that aren't involved in straight domestic violence -- possible threats of outing, the chance that there'll be botched communication if the responder mistakenly assumes that the relationship is heterosexual -- and, y'know, getting this kind of thing right might actually prevent someone from getting killed. It's good for society (unless you don't think preventing murders and assaults is a good thing for society to do) and it's putting trainers to work -- and that, I thought, was the whole freaking point of the stimulus.


The linked story, from the right wing CNSNews site, also lists a few other uses Alexandria is finding for stmulus money:

Other items on the city's update that will be paid for with taxpayer money include:

-- $240,988 for dental treatment to low-income Alexandrians, utility assistance and "utility management education," and job training for ex-offenders.

-- $810,000 for seven "less polluting diesel buses" for the city’s DASH bus system.

-- To make security improvements at the courthouse, purchase equipment for police and mentor programs for at-risk youth.


Oh my God! Police equipment? Job training and dental treatment (both of which can make people much more employable)? Greener buses? How awful! When, oh when will our long national nightmare be over?

No comments: