at Legislative Plaza
Sara Beth Myers has been busy.
Her organization, Advocates for Women’s and Kids’ Equality, has existed officially only since November, but already has a bill with bipartisan support pending in the state legislature. (More on that in a moment.) The Missouri-born, Vanderbilt Law School-educated Myers says she felt called to start AWAKE. “There wasn’t a progressive issues-based organization that advocates specifically for women’s and children’s issues,” she says. “There are a lot of great organizations that already exist; they just don’t do exactly what we do.”
What AWAKE does: work to foster public policy to “improve the wellness, safety, opportunity and equality for women and children in Tennessee.” They’re building a base in Nashville, and plan to start establishing themselves statewide this year. And that’s what Myers works on in her spare time. By day, she’s an assistant district attorney who specializes in hearing domestic violence cases. But as she’s quick to make clear, “In my work life, I’m not doing anything for this private organization.” (She acknowledges that her professional experience has “really helped inform how legislative change needs to occur.”) She also sits on the board of Magdalene/Thistle Farms.
While lawyers may get (or even deserve) a reputation as hair-splitting pedants, even the difference of four words can have real consequences. For instance, a law passed in 2012 requiring mandatory minimum sentences for repeat domestic violence offenders didn’t include the words “consecutive” and “day for day.” As a result, these violent criminals are eligible to earn two-for-one time in jail for good behavior, effectively circumventing the law’s intention — not to mention robbing survivors of valuable time. Myers and her team at AWAKE helped draft HB2337/SB1794, which would close this loophole.
Myers calls domestic violence “one of the biggest problems our state is facing,” and she cites some disturbing statistics to underscore that point. “We rank sixth in the number of women killed by men, something that should be a huge red flag for all of us,” she says. “And over 50 percent of violent crimes involving victims are domestic violence-related in the state. So that really is why we chose that as our first legislative initiative ... hoping to save some lives, and hopefully put some families back together.”
But Myers sees this as just the beginning.
“I don’t want to be pigeonholed as a domestic violence organization,” she says. 2014 will also be a year of intensive research on how legislation could improve operations at the state Department of Children’s Services, and Myers hopes her team can bring its efforts to bear on other issues like pay equity. As their funding expands, Myers sees AWAKE doing more lobbying, whether that’s for laws or against them, and backing candidates. “We will support any candidate who supports our issues,” she says. “They don’t have to be female.”
