Thread by @AllyFogg

Been an interesting week in the campaign for a national strategy to support male victims of sexual abuse, domestic violence & other crimes categorised by the Home Office as 'Violence Against Women and Girls.' Do please hop aboard the thread if you're keeping up. 🧵

First, by way of catch-up, if you're puzzled as to how men and boys can be victims of 'Violence Against Women and Girls' that is understandable, please read the thread(s) here

https://twitter.com/AllyFogg/status/1509451315780497410

Preamble 2: A couple of weeks after that publication kicked off a minor media fuss, the Home Office summoned us to discuss "issues around the title" of the document. We explained the issue was not with the title but the actual policy. So of course they then changed the title.

Last week, a reminder about crimes which are classified as 'VAWG' because they "disproportionately affect women & girls." Operation Hydrant updated figures on police investigations into non-recent institutional sexual abuse. They know of 12,656 victims - 8,370 of whom are male.

On Tuesday, my besties @MrMadrigalOBE and @DrLizBates & I, with written submissions from @VictimsComm Dame Vera Baird, addressed the @APPGMenBoys All Party Parliamentary Group. The full session is here

https://twitter.com/APPGMenBoys/status/1534295925757251584

As a brief aside, I cannot tell you how overwhelming it felt, after years of hammering away at these issues, to have Parliamentarians say to our faces for the very first time, 'This is an outrage. How can we help?'

On Weds, the Women & Equalities #SelectCommittee was on Mental Health of Boys & Men. The Minister was asked directly about recovery support for male survivors of sexual abuse. She floundered & was clearly oblivious that the Govt even has a strategy. parliamentlive.tv/event/index/2c…

Yesterday in the Lords, some of the peers who had been at the APPG meeting on Tuesday, took our arguments directly into the Chamber of the Upper House, and PLEASE watch this bit because wow, three peers in a row tearing into the Minister. parliamentlive.tv/event/index/01…

Check the answer at 11:21:17. "Had we done it in the way he suggested [a parallel strategy for male victims] there may have been a lot of complaints from women & domestic abuse organisations that we have not reflected that it is predominantly women that suffer domestic abuse." >

I need to spell this out because it is so important. This is Home Affairs Minister Baroness Williams saying in Parliament that they have declined to give male victims the support, recognition & respect they deserve because the Govt preferred to placate a presumed women's lobby. >

IF THIS WERE TRUE it would be scandalous because she's basically saying they've thrown one group of survivors under the bus to placate another. But (IMO) the actual situation is worse because it's not even true. >

Women's organisations & advocates overwhelmingly SUPPORT removing male victims from the VAWG strategy. Explicit backing for our campaign has now come from:

Dame Vera Baird
Respect UK
Rape Crisis England & Wales
...and countless individual feminist / women's activists.

BUT...

I think the minister has here revealed a profound truth about what is going on here. There is a lazy, ignorant & deeply harmful presumption at many layers of government that properly acknowledging & addressing intimate violence against men and boys is somehow anti-feminist, and >

> that if politicians offer ANYTHING beyond token acknowledgement of the existence of male victims they'll have a hoard of screeching radfem harpies on their backs. It's not true & it's deeply insulting both to male survivors and to our colleagues & friends in the women's sector.

And on that note, I think I shall thank you once again for your patience & interest & say once more that if you want to help, the best thing you can do is alert your MP that this is going on & let them know you care.