Talking about the importance of domestic violence advocacy
America Thayer's violent and public death last week is bringing into focus a much larger conversation on domestic abuse.
The news of Thayer's killing reached Christie Larson as well. As the executive director of Southern Valley Alliance, an anti-domestic violence advocacy group that serves over a thousand victim-survivors, Larson said she knew she had to say something, after hearing about Thayer's death.
“We really need to bring awareness in our community about domestic violence and the impact it is still having on the residents of the counties here,” Larson said.
According to SVA, Thayer was the 17th victim of domestic violence homicide in the state of Minnesota this year.
In 2020, at least 30 people died from domestic violence across the state.
Larson said the fact that a domestic violence related crime feels like “personal issues” is one big reason why people don’t talk about it more often.
“It's a personal matter, so we shouldn't be intervening,” Larson said, about how people have said they felt about domestic abuse. “But that's what we're encouraging people to do. If you feel something is wrong, and someone is being harmed, we need to speak up and address that.”