Stalking Awareness Month

January marks the start of a new year and it is also Stalking Awareness Month. Recently on Instagram, WomenSafe advocates shared some incredibly helpful information about stalking. Stalking is an often misused and misunderstood term. These graphics do a fantastic job of explaining what stalking is and how it manifests itself in a variety of ways.

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Currently, the issue of stalking is part of a larger political conversation. President-Elect Joe Biden will be sworn in this month and his Plan to End Violence Against Women indicates several policy initiatives related to stalking.  The plan describes:

  • Guaranteed paid domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking safe leave. Biden plans to work with Congress to reform the Family and Medical Leave Act to provide paid leave for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking who need time to seek physical or mental care, seek counsel, find new housing, or take other action relating to the violence they experienced.

  • Confronting online harassment, abuse and stalking. Plans involved convening a National Task Force on Online Harassment and Abuse to address rampant cyber exploitation, online stalking, and intimate partner digital abuse.

  • Enacting legislation to close the so-called “boyfriend loophole” and “stalking loophole” by prohibiting all individuals convicted of assault, battery, or stalking from purchasing or possessing firearms, regardless of their connection to the survivor.

In closing, it’s imperative to know that stalking is never a survivor’s fault. Stalking is violence. It is not cute, romantic, or flattering. For more information about stalking go to www.stalkingawareness.org or call one of WomenSafe’s free and confidential advocates at (802) 388-4205.

 

Margaret Miles

WomenSafe Board Member

She/her

WomenSafe