KCAVP Joins Fight Against Missouri Constitutional Amendment Banning Same-Sex Marriage

Written by Doug Riley

Tuesday, 18 May 2004

Kansas City, MO – The Kansas City Anti-Violence Project (KCAVP), Kansas City’s only nonprofit organization solely dedicated to providing emergency and ongoing services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and bias crimes in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, joins the Constitution Defense League and other Missouri LGBT organizations in the fight against amending the Missouri constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

“Adding discrimination to a document that support the freedoms of Missourians is just plain wrong,” said Doug Riley, executive director of the Kansas City Anti-Violence Project. “What concerns me is the aftermath of this—violence against our community across the state by those who see us as a threat rather than as human beings. This is why it is important that KCAVP added bias crimes to our services in early 2004.”

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs issued the preliminary edition of the “Anti-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Violence in 2003” report in April. Of note is in areas where LGBT controversies have happened such as gay marriage and the abolition of sodomy laws, there has been an increase in reported anti-LGBT violence of 26 percent.

“We welcome the support,” said Doug Gray of the Constitution Defense League. “The work of KCAVP in supporting the LGBT community in Kansas City is a tremendous asset in our effort to fight discrimination.”

KCAVP will collaborate with other area and state organizations to see this amendment defeated.

KCAVP is a Missouri nonprofit corporation committed to providing services, advocacy and education for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and bias crimes within the five counties that encompass the metropolitan Kansas City area. For more information about KCAVP, visit http://www.kcavp.org/.

The Constitution Defense League is a campaign committee working to defeat the amendment to the Missouri constitution to ban gay marriage.

NCAVP is a coalition of over 20 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender victim advocacy and documentation programs located throughout the United States. In cooperation with its member organizations, NCAVP is committed to addressing the pervasive problem of violence committed against and within the nation’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive (LGBTH) communities. For more information about NCAVP, visit http://www.avp.org/.