Only a few days after a dreadful episode of Newsnight (a previous post refers) which all but ignored male victims of domestic violence – and gave a propaganda opportunity to Women’s Aid, a charity with income in excess of £2 million pa – it was good to see a sympathetic treatment of male victims in a piece written by Emily Dugan in today’s The Independent on Sunday:
Some comments in the article, by a spokesman for Women’s Aid, are interesting:
Alan Gibson, an independent domestic violence adviser for Women’s Aid which runs the men’s refuge in Berkshire that is helping Dave, said: “Four organisations phoned us today looking for places for four different men. They’ve been attacked and abused, but there is only one room available in the country and someone will have to decide which of those four men is most in need.”
I’ve just spoken to one of our supporters with deep knowledge of DV. While he has the highest regard for Alan Gibson, it’s his view that organisations such as Women’s Aid will seek ever more government funding to run men’s shelters, thereby providing militant feminists with ever more funding to campaign against men’s human rights. How can Women’s Aid resolve their public position that men use violence to subjugate women, with running men’s shelters?