We Wear Lavender Bracelets

Family violence wasn't news to

Bill Clinton.

He had seen his step-father beat up his mother. He was aware that there are more than 4 million victims of domestic violence in the United States every year.

As part of his 1994 Crime bill, President Clinton established the

Violence Against Women Act,

which contained a provision to create a national domestic violence hotline.

The Opening the in February 1996

National Domestic Violence Hotline

Ellen Fisher, President Bill Clinton, & Lavender Sister Deborah Tucker

When the Department of Health and Human Services went looking for a well-organized agency to give a $1 million start-up grant to implement the hotline, they chose the

Texas Council on Family Violence

a leader among statewide coalitions. Based in Austin, Texas, the Texas Council had supported battered women's shelters and other domestic violence programs since 1978.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline is featured in the

NBC's

The More You Know

public service campaign for 2009.

Two spots by two NBC actresses focus on domestic violence with the Hotline number shown on the screen.

The More You Know is the longest running, most comprehensive network public service campaign in the media landscape.

For nearly two decades, the campaign continues to make a difference in communities across the country by raising awareness of important societal issues and motivating viewers to ...

National Domestic Violence Hotline

Located and staffed in Austin, the hotline utilizes 48 incoming lines, including three for the hearing impaired. It operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Spanish speakers are part of the hotline team, and translators are available in 140 other languages.

Maya Angelou is a survivor and one of the greatest poets of our time. Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. She was a victim of rape at the age of 7 and she spent 5 years refusing to speak to anyone but her brother.

Although Angelou began her literary career as a poet, she is well known for her five autobiographical works, which depict sequential periods of her life.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970) is about Marguerite Johnson and her brother Bailey growing up in Arkansas. It chronicles Angelou's life up to age sixteen, providing a child's perspective of the perplexing world of adults. Although her grandmother instilled pride and confidence in her, her self-image was shattered when she was raped at the age of eight by her mother's boyfriend. Angelou was so devastated by the attack that she refused to speak for approximately five years. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings concludes with Angelou having regained self-esteem and caring for her newborn son, Guy.

Faith McNulty, author of the bestselling 1980 book The Burning Bed, which focused national attention on domestic violence, has died after a long illness, according to friends. She was 86.

The Burning Bed told the story of Francine Hughes, an abused woman who killed her husband by setting him afire as he slept and who was acquitted on self-defense. The book became a TV movie in 1984 and starred Farrah Fawcett.

Ms. McNulty, a native of New York City, began her career as a newswoman as a copy girl at the New York Daily News. She also was a reporter and researcher for Life magazine and wrote for Audubon magazine.

First Rape Crisis Center - Oakland, CA

     Oleta "Lee" Kirk Abrams (1927-2005)
    In 1971, Abrams and two other women co-founded Bay Area Women Against Rape (BAWAR), the nation's first rape crisis center, based in Oakland, Calif. When a man raped her 15-year-old foster daughter in the stairwell of her high school, authorities treated her daughter like a piece of meat, Abrams became infuriated.
    No one offered compassion to the teen after she was assaulted. The police kept her from her family and refused to let her call home. At the hospital, the girl was kept waiting for an hour before a doctor examined her. And once the physician entered her room, he made jokes. The hospital never gave her a pregnancy test or checked her for venereal diseases.
    Abrams was the first person to accompany rape survivors to court when they testified against their attackers, and the first victim-witness advocate for the Alameda County district attorney's office. In this position, she taught police investigators, hospital workers and prosecutors how to deal with special victims.
    http://home.comcast.net/~rcolemans/Oleta/
    She was a real champion for women's rights issues, She was determined and really believed strongly in grassroots movements, volunteerism and women's rights. Through her diplomacy she found ways to make people in the system listen to her.

Carrie Nation Temperance Movement

Carrie Nation (1846-1911)
       Not surprisingly, the first movement against domestic violence in the 19th century was the temperance movement, one that often expressed by a religiously motivated reformer, Carrie Nation, with a Bible in one hand, and a hatchet for smashing saloons and liquor stores in the other. Born Carrie Moore in Garrand County, Kentucky, Nation attributed her passion for fighting liquor to a failed first marriage to an alcoholic.
    The temperance movement existed alongside various women's rights and other movements including the Progressive movement, and often the same activists were involved in all of the above. The movement blamed many of society's ills--including joblessness and domestic violence--on the drinking of alcoholic beverages, and tried to persuade people to abstain from these by becoming teetotalers.
    Supporters claimed that alcohol deprived families of money for clothing and food as well as encouraging domestic violence and street crime and reduced efficiency in the workplace.

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652)

was the first female artist to paint large scale history and religious pictures, subjects considered off-limits to women at that time, and she specialized in themes with female protagonists.
Her depiction of traditional stories of rape and vengeance -- but from the viewpoint of a woman -- marked a breakthrough in the history of art.

Judith Slaying Holofernes
& Self Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (c. 1630)

The Judith and Holofernes painted shortly after Artemisia’s rape has been interpreted by art historian Mary Garrard as a metaphoric expression of female resistance to masculine sexual dominance.
"If it is to be called revenge at all, it's revenge against tyranny. An artist's feeling is the white-hot core of painting... You've got to use your own emotions and paint with your own blood if need be in order to discover and prove the truth of your vision." - by Mary Garrard

http://www.artemisia-gentileschi.com/index.shtml

Great TV Moments

Brother-Sister Healing
Confronting Family Secrets
on Oprah Nov 12, 2003
Angela Shelton was also abused by her step-brother, Steven. Steven says that he too was sexually abused by Angela's father. He also admits that when he was just 11 years old, he started sexually abusing Angela and her sister Lisa. Angela and Steven hadn't seen each other in more than 10 years when she showed up with a camera crew at his doorstep. Angela says that part of her healing came when she confronted her brother. After opening up about their childhood experiences, Angela and Steven today have a good relationship.
"What you did to Lisa and [me] was only learned behavior," Angela assures him. "I forgive you."

Searching for Angela Shelton, opened my eyes to an epidemic of abuse and violence. I have always used my art to address issues in the world and have now become a speaker and activist.

Finding Angela Shelton is a memoir of courage, survival and faith. It is the journey of a young woman who discovers herself in the stories of other women who share her same name and coincidentally share experiences of violence and abuse that plagued her own childhood. Through her physical journey across the country she is thrust into her own emotional journey. She embraces each woman she meets, is strengthened by their connections, confronts the father that molested her, and ultimately finds faith, divine purpose, and wholeness.

Army of Angels
We were inspired and empowered by Angela Shelton to make dramatic shifts in our lives. We now work to make bigger strides forward and help others do the same. We take action towards our own healing and are actively working towards leading joyful lives! It started with Angela Shelton and continues through all of us.

Lavender Heroine

Officer Marsh, a three-year veteran of the Nashville, TN police department, responded to a call for assistance from the victim of a domestic violence episode. As the two women talked in Officer Marsh’s marked police car, Willie Lindsey, a convicted murder, ambushed them by opening fire with two guns. Although critically wounded, Officer Marsh was able to fire at least two rounds in an effort to protect the domestic violence victim and herself.

Courageous Milestones

Sinead

O'Connor
YouTube Video

Gabrielle Union Tells Her Story in Front of Congress

April 6, 2006

Gabrielle Union was on Capitol Hill to help brief Congress on the challenges of providing services to sexual assault victims. The victim of a sexual assault herself at age 19, the star's testimony was part of the 7th Annual National Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Legislative Action Days, sponsored by the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, the

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Lifetime Television.
Gabrielle says she was working at a shoe store on summer break from college when a former employee entered the establishment during clean-up and held up Gabrielle and her co-worker with a gun.

"He took me out of the room and proceeded to rape me at gunpoint," she reveals. "I will be testifying to make sure he stays where he needs to be -- in prison."

Sheila’s Legacy

Sheila Wellstone was a national advocate, organizer,

and champion in the effort to

end domestic and sexual violence.

She played an instrumental role in the passage of major

national legislation and was a fierce advocate

for victims and their families.

In Memoriam

Tanya Neiman

Tanya Neiman was a champion of the homeless, and a tireless advocate for victims of violence. Among her many contributions, she was a founding member of San Francisco Partners Ending Domestic Abuse which involves San Francisco's most influential communities in supporting the agencies that provide domestic violence prevention services and advocacy.
She was also an early practitioner of an approach she described as "holistic advocacy,'' which addressed not only a client's legal problems but also social service needs, like health care, domestic violence and drug treatment.

  Andrea Dworkin
wrote openly about her experiences as a prostitute, rape victim and battered wife that led her to become a crusader against pornography and violence against women -- and a lightning rod for the feminist movement.

    "In every century, there are a handful of writers who help the human race to evolve. Andrea is one of them." -- Gloria Steinem

    She appeared on Donahue, MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, 60 Minutes, CBS Evening News, and 48 hours. She has in The New York Times, Newsweek, and Time magazine. She also had a documentary called Against Pornography: The Feminism of Andrea Dworkin, filmed in NYC and Portland, Oregon, which included excerpts from Dworkin's impassioned public speaking and intimate conversations between Dworkin and women who had been used in prostitution and pornography, most since childhood.
    Dorkin's radical-feminist critique of pornography and violence against women began with her first book, Woman Hating, published in 1974 when she was 27. She went on to speak often about the harms to women of pornography and addressed the historic rally in 1978 when 3,000 women attending the first feminist conference on pornography held the first Take Back the Night March and shut down San Francisco's pornography district for one night.

    Dworkin has been a uniquely influential inspiration both to legal thinkers and to grass-roots feminist organizers. Her original legal theory-that “harm done to women ought not be legally protected just because it is done through speech, and that sexual abuse denies women's speech rights” has not only fomented a rift between advocates of civil rights and civil liberties but has also generated a Constitutional crisis, a fundamental conflict between existing interpretations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

The Andrea Dworkin Online Library

Lavender Sisters in Royalty

Queen Elizabeth I

Queen Elizabeth I of England-The daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth was abused by her stepfather Robert Seymour when she was 14-16 years old. Afterwards, Elizabeth became very puritanical, both to protect her reputation and out of fear that she would be executed for being Seymour's victim. Robert Seymour was himself later executed although for political reasons rather than over what he had done to Elizabeth.

Thriving Past Abusive Childhood

Legends Who Made a Difference

    Ella Fitzgerald recorded over 2000 songs over the course of a 58-year career, winning 13 Grammies and selling more than 40 million records. She is the Queen of Swing.
    But that journey is nothing compared to the distance Fitzgerald traveled in her personal life. Her father died before she had a chance to know him, and her mother died when she was fifteen, leaving her to an abusive step-father and an uncertain future. Ella dropped out of school, took to the streets, and ended up running numbers for a living during the Great Depression. Taken into custody, she wound up at a girls reformatory where the male staff routinely beat the girls.
    A victim of poverty and abuse, Ms. Fitzgerald was able to transcend circumstance and develop into one of the greatest musicians that America has ever produced.
    Musically, professionally, and personally, Ms. Fitzgerald was one-of-a-kind, an American treasure.

Tina Turner Survives the Odds and an Abusive Marriage

Ike's increasingly abusive behavior led Tina Turner to abruptly leave him in 1976. She credits her newfound Buddhist faith with giving her the courage to strike out on her own.

Tina finalized her divorce in 1978 after 18 years of marriage, accusing Turner of years of severe spousal abuse and rampant drug addiction in her autobiography

I, Tina, which was later made into the film

What's Love Got to Do with It?

To put the marriage behind her, Tina left with no money or property, asking for only the use of the stage name Ike had given her.

We all know the happy ending in this lady's life ...

The Darkest Secret
By revealing the painful story
of her sexual abuse as a child,
actress Teri Hatcher hopes to help other victims

Newsweek

Oct. 8, 2007 issue - I'm 7. "Do you want to go with me?" asks my uncle. I wanted to go. I remember that. I remember feeling excitement and shame simultaneously. In that moment, all I knew was that for some reason I wanted to be alone ... with him. We'd be driving to pick up my cousin. We'd pull over in some abandoned parking lot. He'd turn off the engine and suddenly that space in the car with the seats that go all the way across would become the scary and haunting locale of the most defining and damaging event in my life.