www.detroitnews.com/article/20140610/OPINION01/306100008/0/OPINION01/-Men-s-rights-misrepresented

‘Men’s rights’ misrepresented

On June 26-28, Detroit will host the first Conference on Men’s Issues, sponsored by the men’s rights group “A Voice For Men.” As vice president of the oldest men’s rights organization in the United States, the National Coalition For Men, I would like to respond to the tsunami of vitriolic attacks all over the media lately about the men’s rights movement, falsely tying us to the Elliot Rodgers killings and accusing us of being a misogynistic white male movement.

It is astonishing how the media ignores our issues until they have a chance to use a public atrocity to distort and bash the men’s rights movement. Rodgers was not affiliated with any men’s rights group that we know of. And his views do not represent our movement, which proudly consists of both men and women. My organization has many female members and several women on its national board. Our Dallas chapter is led by a woman. And every rally we ever held had both men and women, side by side.

The men’s rights movement is about equal rights. Period. Because you can’t have equal rights for men or women without the opposite sex enjoying the same rights. We address badly neglected issues concerning men and boys in areas of child custody, false accusations, male victims of domestic and

sexual abuse, education, public health, military conscription and more.

Men make up the vast majority of homeless adults, job deaths, prisoners, suicide deaths, combat deaths, and dropouts. They have higher mortality rates than women for almost all 15 leading causes of death. A recent study show boys are getting worse grades than girls in every subject, including math.

But from what I’ve seen, the only ones truly addressing the gender aspect of these issues are men’s rights activists.

Here in California, for decades a state law excluded male victims of domestic violence from state-funded services. It took MRAs to sue the state on behalf of battered men and win a landmark appellate victory in Woods v. Horton, declaring the discrimination unconstitutional. MRAs then helped create the first-ever official Los Angeles County Task Force on Male Victims. It took MRAs to get JFK Airport in New York to put diaper changing tables in its men’s restrooms. MRAs in Germany got the European Union to confront Germany’s law that denied custody rights to unmarried dads absent moms’ consent. And MRAs in Israel recently got the United Nations to chastise Israel for its discriminatory “tender years” doctrine giving moms preference over young kids.

Those who accuse us of being a white male movement are, at best, ignorant. We work with men’s and fathers’ rights groups in minority communities throughout the U.S. as well as Africa, Latin America and Asia. One of the most prominent MRA movements in the world is in India where they face the special problem of abuse of dowry laws. MRAs in the Philippines recently got the government to stop ignoring battered men.

It is only because our movement is growing that there is so much backlash coming from those who do not want a balanced dialogue on gender. But we will never have equal rights until we are honest about the inequalities of both sexes. And that will not happen until both sides — feminists and MRAs — are included in the dialogue.

Marc E. Angelucci, Vice President,

National Coalition For Men

Responsible MRA’s are nonviolent.

NCFM MRA’s are concerned with the best interests of all of us, and we have been since 1977.

At the Detroit MRA conference those protesting the MRA conference will be the same people who amongst themselves preach tolerance. Won’t be us. We actually practice what we preach.