I do not talk about this lightly. I lived through domestic violence behind closed doors, where there were no witnesses and no audience. Someone I trusted knew what I had endured, knew about the nightmares, knew there were documents, and still chose to sit down with my abuser to “hear his side.” That is exactly how survivors get failed in plain sight.

This is bigger than one terrible choice. So many survivors are harmed all over again when people with influence treat abuse like a debate, as if the person who survived it and the person accused of causing it should be weighed the same. Domestic violence often happens in private. That is the point. The absence of an audience is not proof that nothing happened, and giving an abuser a comfortable stage to deny everything can deepen the damage for survivors who are already carrying fear, trauma, and isolation.

I am calling on organizations, workplaces, advocacy groups, and community institutions to require survivor-centered domestic violence training for leaders, staff, and public-facing representatives. People in positions of trust need clear guidance on how to respond when someone discloses abuse, how not to retraumatize survivors, and why “he said, she said” thinking is so dangerous in cases of domestic violence. If someone wants to present themselves as a safe person for women in danger, then they need to be trained to act like one.

If you believe survivors deserve better than betrayal disguised as neutrality, please sign this petition. Sign if you understand that enabling an abuser is not compassion, and that people in power must learn how to respond to domestic violence disclosures with care, accountability, and basic human decency.