Hijacked by the Right: Battered Women in America's Culture War

Preface

I remember keeping a copy of The Women’s Room hidden in my piano bench when I was a young suburban wife and mother. Women’s Lib and this new-old concept of feminism was in the news and women like me were hearing that there was more to life than just cooking dinners, watching the kids play, and cleaning up. Our days were interminably long yet too short as we performed our duties as good housewives. Somehow, we never found time for ourselves to be alone... to read, to listen to music, to just think. I would snatch moments late at night or when the kids were napping. I devoured books written by feminist authors and anticipated the arrival of my monthly Ms. Magazine. I found a few precious hours to volunteer at a women’s program. In time, I became a battered women’s counselor, and eventually the director of counseling in a community domestic violence agency. My colleagues were firmly grounded in feminist philosophy and politics, and together we achieved groundbreaking institutional changes in policies and laws. We made the personal political in our own lives.

Over the course of my career, I counseled many women whose abusers were in law enforcement. Their stories and passion led me to write Police Domestic Violence: A Handbook for Victims. Next came Crossing the Threshold: Female Officers and Police-Perpetrated Domestic Violence, and then the first edition of Hijacked by the Right: Battered Women in America's Culture War. Each book was inspired by the women who shared their lives with me and to whom I am deeply indebted.

When I began writing Hijacked in 2011, the growing impact of the Christian Right was becoming evident as fundamentalists were making their marks in every facet of society: education, politics, business, media, and healthcare. I was honestly frightened as I saw what was happening in the daily lives of the women I counseled, my colleagues, even within my own family. I read extensively to convince myself otherwise, only to learn that I was not alone in my fear. I became determined to sound the alarm within the battered women’s community. I chose the Family Justice Center Alliance as a prime example of the Right’s machinations, and it turned out to be a good choice for they have evolved with the times: retreating when prudent, advancing when strategic, changing names and faces as expedient. The FJC is a prime example of how a well-funded charismatic individual or institution can swoop in and take over – or hijack – secular programs, people, institutions, and communities. Its leaders, its purpose, its organization are all examples of how easily a feminist ideal can be lost. All it takes is one man’s big dream. And the power to ruthlessly pursue it.

There is a such chasm now between the Christian Right and Liberal Left that ideology has become a practice that puts our lives at risk. I strongly urge communities, independent providers, and those needing domestic violence services to carefully consider the risks of programs which co-locate law enforcement and social services under one roof. It may be the only option available as community programs have been forced to close their doors. But be aware, a co-located program is a conservative, often Christian-influenced creation. Its goal is to limit, not to enhance, women’s personal autonomy. In this second edition, I have tried to clarify their methods so readers might better understand their purpose – even if they do operate behind a curtain.

The Religious Right planned our hijacking well. The safety net has been torn and if conservatives have their way, it will soon be destroyed. Little did I expect that they would accomplish so much so quickly and so ruthlessly. A woman seeking refuge from her abuser, or judicial relief, or basic domestic violence counseling faces considerable obstacles. Women-centered services are getting harder to find; services for victims of police intimate violence are virtually nonexistent. I wish I could predict a better future lies ahead but wishes are for fools and women need reality now.

Introduction

Twenty years ago, Casey Gwinn, a former San Diego City Attorney, and his deputy Gael Strack, developed a program for domestic violence victims which co-located law enforcement and domestic violence service providers in one central facility. They named it a Family Justice Center. Gwinn claimed that domestic violence victims often didn’t seek help because they had to go to too many scattered sites to talk to all the people they needed: police, prosecutors, probation officers, mental health professionals, victim advocates, chaplains, and others. Service providers and law enforcement didn’t share information or coordinate services because they were isolated from each other and protective of their own turf. Everyone had to negotiate a gauntlet of services.

Co-location would provide one-stop convenience for victims, facilitate collaboration among providers, and eliminate duplication of services. FJCs would facilitate the transfer of information between service providers and the criminal justice system. Armed with the evidence, police and prosecutors would hold offenders accountable through arrest and prosecution. Victims would be free... or would they be? As we shall explore, there is much, much more to the FJC agenda.

The pillars of western culture – Family, Government, Law Enforcement, Corporations, and Religion – serve as guardians of male power. Each pillar upholds its part of the patriarchal structure. Each benefits from the preservation of racism, sexism, heteronormativity, classism, and all other forms of oppression. Institutions that exist to protect the interests of male power and privilege cannot simultaneously protect the interests of the victims of that power, especially women and their children.

The publicized goal of the Family Justice Center Alliance is to offer hope and healing to hurting families. When Gwinn founded the FJCA, he claimed there was a struggle for the very heart of the domestic violence movement. He held that the historic Battered Women’s Movement was divisive as it focused on male violence against women; sexist because it discounted male victims; and neglectful of children in its efforts to protect battered women. His evolutionary FJC movement would enlist professionals who would set aside their egos and turf issues to become effective warriors in the battle against family violence.

Ostensibly, the struggle between the FJC and old guard feminists was over logistics: what victims would the FJC serve, what services were needed, and who would provide those services? But the struggle was more basic: from whose worldview and with whose philosophy would services be provided? The feminist Battered Women’s Movement is a community-based woman-centric social justice model that challenges male privilege and welcomes alternative family structures. The Family Justice Center movement is an institution-based patriarchal model that provides domestic violence services in a way that preserves male privilege and the patriarchal family. While the FJC Alliance claims to reduce men’s use of physical violence against women, I hold it seeks to do so without threatening men’s status, power, and domination of women. It is not an evolution of the Battered Women’s Movement, but rather a front in the Christian Right’s fight to secure patriarchal dominance.

Gwinn, with the support of the federal government, continues to promote the FJC model not only to communities around the country, but to communities around the world. Each community must decide whether to institute the model, and each community needs information upon which to base their decision. Those who stand to be impacted by the establishment of a FJC, particularly small community-based agencies, report feeling under siege when the FJC