Spectrum Advocacy
ACTION ITEMS
Two of our priority bills are one step away from passing through the legislature and moving to Gov. Ferguson's desk to be signed into law.
OUR ASK: Contact legislators in the House and Senate Rules Committees, encouraging them to make sure these bills get pulled for a floor vote.
Bill #1: SB 6081 - Gender Marker Protection Bill - AKA - Protecting Washingtonians from invasion of privacy, including the unauthorized disclosure of sex designation information and historic sex designation changes in official government records.
SB 6081 would protect trans Washingtonians from doxxing and harassment by making the history of one's gender marker no longer accessible via public records requests. Leaving this private information open to public records requests only creates opportunity for anti-trans harassment, discrimination and violence to flourish.
Contact Rep. Laurie Jinkins' two legislative assistants, and ask for these bills to be moved to a floor vote. (Rep. Jinkins is the Chair of the House Rules committee, and a member of the LGBTQ Caucus!)
Email Gretchen.Mazikowski@leg.wa.gov and Stefanie.Skar@leg.wa.gov or call 360-786-7930 to urge Rep. Jinkins to make sure this bill is called for a floor vote.
Bill #2: HB 1604 - Protections on searches for transgender and intersex inmates.
HB 1604 would establish desperately needed protections for trans and intersex individuals in jails, specifically addressing the risk of sexual violence that trans women face in the jail system. This bill establishes the bare minimum of protections for those that face the highest rates of sexual violence in jails and prisons.
Contact Sen. Marcus Riccelli's two legislative assistants, and ask for this bill to be moved to a floor vote.
Email Maddie.Sontag@leg.wa.gov and Bariah.Rice@leg.wa.gov and/or call 360-786-7604 to let them know Eastern WA wants to see this bill move forward.
The cut-off for these bills to have had a floor vote is 6PM on 3/6. Spread the word, and let these legislators know that we need these bills passed.
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*If you have the time, you can also contact all the elected officials on the House Rules and Senate Rules committees.
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"After many years of grassroots advocacy, the Washington State LGBTQ Commission was established by the Washington Legislature through SB5356, with Senator Claire Wilson, the first openly lesbian Senator in Washington, as the primary sponsor."
"Our mission is to improve the government's interface with the LGBTQ community, identifying the needs of its members, and ensuring that there is an effective means of advocating for LGBTQ equity in all aspects of state government (RCW 43.114)."
Although this guide is designed for Washington State's 2025 Legislative Session, it still has very useful information for future reference - like next year's legislative session! (However, that session will be shorter, and the dates specified in this guide will be different.)
Equality Labs has put together an amazing guide for organizers, activists, and anyone who is concerned with digital security and protecting themselves from malicious actors. This guide is huge, but definitely a timely resource for us all.
About this guide, from the authors:
On June 1, 2020, President Trump ordered members of the military to repress nonviolent demonstrators in Washington, DC. Seeing this as a severe abuse of power—and an indication of the lengths Trump might go to try to stay in office—the four of us got together and produced this guide over the course of several months. We are an interracial, intergenerational group with experience in U.S. activism, organizing, and training (in the U.S. and abroad), as well as expertise in pro-democracy movements around the world.
All of us contributed to this work, and all of us stand by the words in this guide. One note is that Hardy Merriman is credited for sole authoring Part IV. We are grateful for the feedback and encouragement we received from the reviewers we consulted.
Work on this guide was in our independent capacities. The views expressed here are solely personal to the authors and do not represent the views of any employer or other organization with which we may be affiliated."
-- Hardy Merriman, Ankur Asthana, Marium Navid, Kifah Shah