Rejoice: As one if its first acts of the 2013 legislative season, this afternoon the U.S. Senate passed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) by a 78-22 margin. An identical bill has been cosponsored by House Democrats, but will likely face revisions by House Republicans, who last year refused to vote in favor of protective provisions for Native Americans, LGBTQ, and immigrants drafted into the VAWA because they're total dicks whose personal happiness hinges on subjugating and dehumanizing other people—especially if those people are women! Women who have no interest in fucking them! Or the trifecta of sins: Brown women who have no interest in fucking them!

Anyway, props to Washington Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell for their work ensuring the bill's passage. Here's what Chris Stearns, chairmen of the Seattle Human Rights Commission, had to say about our state's leading ladies:

Washington Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell led the charge in the Senate, standing up for the human rights, dignity, and future of Native American women. We are grateful for their passion and compelling sense of honor and justice. We are doubly thankful that the Senate rejected the insidious and ham-headed amendments to strip out protections for Native American women who suffer from sexual assault and domestic violence at still-staggering rates. Now that the Senate has spoken, we urge the House of Representatives to pass the same bill, and pass it quickly.

As Murray herself notes in a statement to the press, "The clock is still ticking and over 160 million women across the country are watching and waiting to see if the House will act on this bill and finally provide them the protections from violence they deserve. And just like last Congress, we all know it will take leadership from Speaker Boehner and Leader Cantor to move this bill forward. The fate of VAWA still lies squarely on their shoulders and too many women have been left vulnerable while they have played politics."

Fingers crossed.