My Road Trip Across Our Great State
One of my goals after my election to speaker is to visit all 49 legislative districts and all member of the House in Washington state. So far, I’ve met with just over 30 members. Earlier this month I spent over a week in Eastern Washington visiting with my fellow lawmakers in Leavenworth, Chelan, Wenatchee, Spokane, Colfax, Yakima, Pomeroy, Colville, Wauconda, and several other communities across the Cascades.
The “East/West Divide” is something that’s talked about quite a bit. Certainly, there are characteristics unique to both regions, although, as someone who grew up in rural America, I’ve found the differences to be more related to urban and rural living versus some sort of geographic divide.
There are occasions that we find ourselves on opposite ends of the spectrum on certain policy ideas. But ultimately, I firmly believe that there’s far more we have in common than what separates us.
Our communities want strong public schools, access to quality health care services, good-paying jobs, a healthy environment, and more opportunities than we had for our kids to lead fulfilling and successful lives.
But you don’t have to take my word for it. This idea is reflected in the work that we do in the Legislature. The vast majority of bills enacted into law are done so with overwhelming bipartisan support.
State lawmakers in both parties work together to solve problems on a routine basis.
Democrats and Republicans will once again come together in January to solve problems facing our communities. We’ve done that time and time again for years, and I’m looking forward to getting started on that work here again soon.
Protecting Net Neutrality in Washington State
The current federal Administration wasted no time pushing forward an anti-consumer agenda after the president’s inauguration in 2017. This list of his efforts to roll back civil and human rights and consumer protections is quite extensive.
Those include rolling back banking regulations put in place after the 2008 financial crisis, firing the entire Consumer Financial Protection Bureau advisory council, and repealing worker safety rules.
Which means now more than ever it is incumbent upon state legislatures to enact consumer protections stripped away at the federal level.
Last year, in anticipation of Trump’s Federal Communications Commission efforts to repeal net neutrality rules, Washington state became the first in the nation to enact state-level net neutrality protections. (What is net neutrality? Here’s a great 90-second explainer video from ABC News.)
Thanks to my colleague Rep. Drew Hansen of Bainbridge Island, we passed a strong bipartisan bill in 2018 to protect net neutrality for Washington consumers. Other states like California enacted similar protections, which the Trump Administration tried to block in the courts.
Those efforts failed earlier this month when a federal appeals court affirmed states’ rights to enact their own protections. Washington consumers will continue to enjoy a free and open internet. This is just one of the many efforts we’re pursuing to ensure Washington residents remain projected from harmful business practices despite what happens at the federal level.
National Coming Out Day
Last week we celebrated the 31st anniversary of National Coming Out Day. When I came out in the 80s, I never imagined the possibility of getting married to my wife, Laura. This country looked a lot different back then and still had a long journey ahead for LGBTQ rights.
Washington state took a major step in the wrong direction 21 years ago when we enacted the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) officially banning same-sex marriages. Since then, the fight for LGBTQ rights has gone into overdrive.
Within a decade, the state enacted domestic partnership laws that legally recognized same sex partnerships. And 14 years after DOMA was first enacted, it was overturned in 2012 when the Legislature enacted marriage equality, a decision upheld by voters later that year.
I’m proud to live in a progressive state like Washington that values equality for all. In large part due to our majorities in the House for the last two decades, we’ve been able to enact sexual orientation and gender identity protections for foster care youth, workplace discrimination, hate crimes, housing, and education. We also banned the dangerous and harmful practice of conversion therapy.
We’ve come a long way on protecting LGBTQ rights in the last twenty years. But there’s still more work to do. And as the first lesbian speaker of the House for Washington state, I’m eager to start writing the new chapter in our state’s history not just for LGBTQ people but for all of those who’ve been affected by discrimination, disenfranchisement, and legalized generational trauma.