Advocacy & Political Organizing
2025 WA State Legislative Session Wins
HB 1296: The Safety Act (Amending Initiative 2081)
The Safety Act (HB 1296) also amends I-2081 (the “Parent’s Bill of Rights”) by strengthening students’ right to privacy, extending protections for Trans youth, and adding a new statement of student rights.
What it does for students: - Ensures student safety, access to education, and privacy are prioritized in school policies - Strengthens policies to support transgender and gender-expansive students, including addressing bullying and harassment and ensuring gender-inclusive practices - Ensures students have access to accurate, diverse, and inclusive curriculum, to support students feeling seen and valued - Prevents a school or parent from protesting student learning about topics like the Civil Rights movement, race/racism, LGBTQ2S identities, etc. - Establishes a Statement of Student Rights, ensuring students know their rights, including access to a free public education, freedom of speech and religion, and protections against discrimination What it does for parents and families: - Expands rights for enrolling children in public schools regardless of immigration status, housing or disabilities - Ensures access to bilingual education, special education, and language services What it does for educators: - Introduces anti-retaliation protections for teachers and staff who support students' legal rights, teach state-mandated standards, and use inclusive, culturally representative materials. - Provides guidance and training on supporting transgender and gender-expansive students, with mandatory compliance rules for schools by 2026. Additional Protections: - Strengthens enforcement by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), allowing sanctions for noncompliance with safety, privacy, and equity policies. - Includes an emergency clause, making these changes effective immediately to prioritize student safety and equity in public education.
This bill requires health plans that cover prescription hormone therapy to reimburse a 12-month refill of prescription hormone therapy at one time. (6 months for testosterone) This bill takes effect January 1, 2026.
"Trans Legislation Tracker is an independent research organization tracking bills that impact trans and gender-diverse people across the United States. We support academics and journalists with data and make tools that help the public follow and engage with legislation. Our growing set of resources help people understand the broader story of trans legal rights in the U.S."
Sign up for updates with Erin in the Morning, she is a trans journalist reporting on trans and queer news and legislation.
"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