Women's Domestic Abuse Charity Loses Millions in Funding for Not Being Gender-Neutral
'More support needed' for transgender and Gay residents
© press
A domestic abuse charity in Brighton, UK, has lost £5million ($7M) in funding for not being gender-neutral.
After receiving funding for 26 years, the refuge and domestic abuse service 'Rise' had its funding pulled.
Brighton council chiefs decided that more support was needed for straight transgender and gay people, arguing Rise was a women-only service.
But campaigners fear such a decision will spread out nationwide and close women’s refuges putting many vulnerable female victims at risk.
Women’s Aid boss Nicki Norman said:
“We are deeply concerned."
© press
"In this case, the council said ‘the tender was intentionally non-gendered which meant that Rise, being primarily a service for women, went against them, even though they have a specialist LGBT service and could expand their services to include heterosexual men," Norman added.
“We are at serious risk of losing our network of refuges run by women for women.”
The £5.1million contract will now be split between Victim Support and Stonewater, a national social housing provider.
It will cater to all genders.
Councillor Druitt said:
“It’s much better for Brighton and Hove City Council to run our own procurement, and that is something we have committed to do."
“This situation won’t be able to happen again because we will run our own procurement with our own values and our own emphasis that we place on social value and the third sector and its role in the community.”
© press
According to recent studies, 91 percent of domestic abuse is against women have a much higher risk of being seriously hurt or killed than victims who are male.
Typically, women also experience higher rates of repeated victimization and are more likely to be killed than male victims.
83% of victims of domestic abuse are subjected to more than 10 violent incidents being women.
A petition protesting the decisions by Brighton and Hove city council has now garnered over 20,000 signatures.
