Almost.

This is an image of pure joy outside the door to the apartment where I was assaulted in Rome in 2008. That’s because I’m holding a draft of the legislative bill I worked on for 9 months in 2024 with the staff of a Senator I admire. This effort came out of the April 2024 Congressional Day of Action with RAINN that wrote about in my previous post. I had followed up with the legislative contacts I had made that day, and it bore fruit I could have never imagined.

The bill was a simple one in that it looked to amend all of 18 words in the existing Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) to expand the definition of “underserved” to Americans harmed outside the US so that we might have access to funding for support services. I had worked many nights after hours here in London with U.S. legislative staff learning the nuances of crafting language, finding sponsors and lining up support. I worked with staff at the Congressional Research Library and solicited insights from various governmental organizations to make sure nothing we were proposing would interfere with existing or future legislation. Throughout autumn, we worked to get our bill language settled, and a draft was created. I cried when I opened my email one morning and saw the bill draft in all its fancy, official-looking glory.

Two days before this photo was taken in December 2024, while standing in Piazza Navona in Rome, I had locked in the support of the biggest victims services org in the U.S. and a host of others with my colleague at Pathways, for when it would be introduced to the 119th Congress in early January. But as you might imagine, given the current state of our United States, the introduction never happened. And it might never happen.

The word “underserved” is on the government’s new list of banned words. In fact, most of the words comprising VAWA are on that list. Furthermore, all funding to the Office on Violence Against Women was halted, and the web sites, scrubbed. So much has been destroyed in the past few weeks that have broken hearts and crushed dreams. Mine is just one of them. It was 9 months of work, and it was 16 years. I couldn’t wait to share the news with you all. I was bursting with it. So many of you have supported me, donated, heard my struggles, and witnessed my victories. This small bill would have had a massive impact for millions of people – your friends, family, and loved ones.

For weeks I have been privately devastated. It hits me in waves out of nowhere and I can’t catch my breath. I have felt shame in that I couldn’t get it across the line because I don’t often fail like this. I have felt that it was not worth sharing because it remains still a draft and likely always will. It’s just a small story in the grander scheme of some horrible things happening. I teeter between wanting to fight and wanting to just lay still and absorb it. I want you to know I never stopped trying. I never took your support for granted. Your belief in me helped me keep going.
And we almost did it.