We are trying a new series – dedicating an article page to each state we serve in for the year and using it as a mini-blog. We’ll post updates on laws and court cases here as we have them. This here is Alaska.
Content Note: we talk about anti-trans legislation.
The Washington State Legislature
At the Washington State Legislature home page, you can:
- Find and contact your legislators
- See committee and floor session schedules
- Track bills and sign up for alerts on individual bills
- You can send a comment to your WA legislators about a bill from the bill page.
- Sign up to participate in a committee hearing
The Gender Justice League is an excellent resource for staying informed about active bills. They also sponsor trainings and a lobby day each year in Olympia.
June 21, 2024
A partial preliminary injunction was granted in Legal Counsel for Youth and Children, et. al. v. State of Washington on June 21st. This stops some of Initiative 2081 (aka the Parents Bill of Rights) from going into effect or being enforced.
The blocked portions of the law include the instructions to schools about how and when they must respond to records requests from parents as well as giving parents more access to youth medical and mental health records. These parts of the law conflicted with existing regulations about timely access to records and youth confidentiality and privacy rights. Other portions of the law remain in effect.
ACLU of WA statement.
Associated Press article.
Legal Counsel for Youth and Children – one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, have a great Minor Consent infographic for WA youth.
May 24, 2024
The ACLU of Washington, Qlaw, and Legal Voice have announced that they are suing the State of Washington to stop the Parents Bill of Rights initiative from becoming law.
Initiative 2081 was passed by the legislature in March after earning enough signatures to qualify for legislative action. In Washington, initiatives can go to the legislature after signature gathering or be added to a ballot for individual voting. Initiatives passed by ballot are harder to change compared to legislative initiatives.
2081 restates several rights that parents already have, and makes other rights more vague. For example, 2081’s language allow parents to exempt their student from any lesson content that mentions sex rather than the current right to exempt students from sex ed. This could allow parents to exempt students from broad categories of educational topics. 2081 also gives parents more access to student mental health records, which could be in violation of FERPA and HIPAA regulations.
Additional information:
- What Would Washington’s Parents Rights Initiative Do? (The Stranger, 1/30/24)
- LGBTQ Advocates Are Ready to Fight the Parents’ Bill of Rights (The Stranger, 3/6/24)
- ACLU of Washington, Legal Voice, and QLaw, sue the State of Washington to prevent I-2081 from going into effect (ACLU Washington, 5/23/24)
February 29, 2024
Urgent action alert from Planned Parenthood and the Gender Justice League to contact the House Rules Committee in favor of the Keep Our Care Act. Direct link to Planned Parenthood’s email action.
January 25, 2024
The ACLU is tracking four bills in the WA State Legislature.
S.B. 6026 – Educational Outing Bill, Pronoun Erasure. Bill in the Senate; has had first reading and moved to committee.
- Bill would require employees and contractors of public K-12 schools to use only the name listed on the student’s birth certificate (or a shortened version of that name) without written permission from the student’s parents or guardians.
- Employees and contractors may not use a pronoun that “is different from that student’s biological sex” without written permission of the student’s parents or guardians.
- Employees and contractors “shall not carry out any act or communication that would violate” the above restrictions. So maybe can’t even email the adults to ask?
- A public school or school district may not require an employee or contractor to use a pronoun that is contrary to their religious or moral convictions.
S.B. 5653 – Forced Outing Bill in the Senate. Has had first reading and is in committee.
- Health care providers may not offer or arrange to provide health care to minors or prescribe medicinal drugs without written parental consent, except where otherwise allowed by law.
- A health care provider may not allow a medical procedure to be done on a minor without written parental consent.
- Schools must adopt policies and procedures to notify parents/guardians if there are any changes in the “student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being.”
- Schools may not adopt a policy or procedure that prohibits staff from informing parents/guardians of any changes about the student’s well-being.
- No classroom instruction about sexual orientation “including gender expression or identity” may occur in grades K through 3rd in a manner that is not age or developmentally appropriate.
H.B. 2241 – Youth Healthcare ban. Bill in the House, referred to the Health Care & Wellness Committee.
- This bill is a resubmission of last year’s H.B. 1214, which failed in committee.
- Would medical care for the purpose of “attempting to alter the appearance of, or affirm the minor’s perception of, the minor’s gender or sex, if that appearance or perception is inconsistent with the minor’s sex.”
- includes blockers and hormones
- surgeries, including “removing any healthy or nondiseased body part or tissue”
- specific carves out tapering a minor off of blockers or hormones as allowed
- defines sex by chromosomes, “naturally occurring” hormones, and observed genitalia at birth “without regard to an individual’s psychological, chosen, or subjective experience of gender.”
- So they accept that gender exists, just want to prohibit trans people from acting on it via medical care.
H.B. 1233 – Housing in State Correctional Facilities; House Bill, referred to committee.
- Prohibits housing by gender in state correctional facilities if the person has been convicted of a sex offense against a victim whose biological sex is the same as those persons who are primarily housed in that correctional facility.
- Note that other states are moving to criminalize people for being trans, and are categorizing that as sex offenses.
Related QueerDoc Articles:
- Washington State is Safe(r) With Shield Laws
- Tracking Legislation In 2024 And Not Burning Out
- Tracking Anti-Trans Legislation (2021 article with citations)
