MEDIA MENTIONS + FURTHER READINGS

This report was developed by Oliver Treanor Miska, LRP's political consultant and founder of Solidarity Policy and Public Affairs.

Prior to the start of the 2025 legislative session LRP developed an ambitious legislative agenda based on our organizational priorities and our desire to exist at a state where policymakers prioritize an intersectional approach to solving issues that are pressing to Washingtonians, especially those from historically marginalized communities.

The 2025 Legislature must fully repeal I-2081. The law is a direct attack on transgender youth and creates harm for them in our public school systems. Our concern lies with impacted transgender students as well as affirming teachers and educators who face harm under this current law. Transgender students deserve to attend school in safe and affirming environments that validate their identity.

The 2025 Legislature must vote against any and all legislation whose effect is to attack the dignity and livelihood of transgender people. This includes proposed legislation that concerns gender affirming care, health care, public accommodations, educational opportunities, housing, elder law, and any other areas of policy that touch the lives of transgender people. We will not compromise on basic human rights.

The 2025 Legislature must vote against any legislation that punishes and criminalizes people for simply being poor. Additionally, the legislature must introduce and pass legislation that includes benefits cliff and other progressive mechanisms that do not penalize people in poverty from participating in programs that improve their quality of life. Trans people and BIPOC people are historically disenfranchised under these laws.

The 2025 Legislature must vote against any laws that increase police power and resources at the expense of public safety. Also, the legislature must vote against legislation that permits enhanced sentencing for people. Trans people and BIPOC people are historically disenfranchised under these laws.

The 2025 Legislature must pass rent control legislation. The legislature should and must prioritize access to affordable housing as a way to radically reduce housing inequities and homelessness. Housing inequality disproportionately disenfranchises trans and BIPOC people.

The 2025 Legislature must commit to a budget proposal to fund LGBTQ organizations who have had to take on additional work in the wake of I-2081 and other anti-queer laws that have exacerbated our current operating capacity. The 2025 Legislature must commit to a budget proposal to provide financial resources to smaller LGBTQ orgs that had to increase capacity, with limited resources, to address the fall out from anti-transgender laws.

This year Lavender Rights Project took a more direct approach to policy advocacy, including hiring a new contract lobbyist who balanced their time between direct lobbying, community education, and coalition building. The partnership between our policy director, focusing on national alignment, and our government relations specialist, who focused on statewide advocacy, allowed us to make a deeper impact at the legislature this session.

This session we worked with a growing LGBTQ, racial justice, and gender-affirming coalition with organizations including: Q Law, Pro Choice WA, ACLU WA, WEA, Planned Parenthood, Gender Justice League, Legal Council for Youth and Children, Oasis Youth Center, Legal Voice Washington, Washington Bus, Vocal WA, Build 206, Team Child, Southwest Washington Equity Coalition, and various student groups.

Our policy team developed legislative priorities that we released on our new landing page for all things legislative, these can be found at lavrights.org/tracker.

Our legislative tracker, found on our website, and distributed in our newsletter and on social media, provided resources that allowed for community engagement with the fast moving pace of the legislature with relevant updates.

We developed video updates that provided background information, updates, as well as calls to action that together reached ~30,000 views.

Our government relations specialist (lobbyist) provided testimony in hearings throughout the session, as well as provided support for parents and youth to testify in front of the legislature.

Our team heard from families, parents, students, and educators about their stories dealing with on-going discrimination in our schools across Washington State. These stories helped inform lawmakers' floor speeches and galvanized support amongst democratic caucus members for the importance of our legislative priorities.

Our policy team worked with print media to support public narrative framing for our priority legislation this session, HB 1296 and SB 5181. We contributed to publications in The Seattle Times, The Stranger, and Real Change. Links to these media mentions and productions can be found in the Resources section.

During the session and after, we attended and presented at coalition meetings, community forums, panel discussions, and legislative recap sessions.

I-2081 contained 12 provisions, many that were already included in our state's law and caused a lot of confusion amongst lawmakers and the public. The ultimate nature of the initiative was to carve out loopholes for protections against forced outing of students, the correct use of pronouns and bathrooms, and protections for gender affirming care.

In the case of I-2081, the legislature decided to pass the bill as filed, which would allow them in the next session (this year's session) to amend the legislation, removing the harmful and redundant language.

That is why legislators from the LGBTQ caucus and allies like Representative Stonier proposed HB 1296 and SB 5181 to ensure that we have statewide compliance with our anti-discrimination laws for the LGBTQAI community.

HB 1296 and SB 5181 took slightly different approaches at the beginning of the session, each addressing particular issues with I-2081, but also included further protections such as explicit codification of our state's transgender student model policy for provisions such as no-dead naming, correct pronoun use, gender affirming bathroom use, and student rights to privacy.

Fortunately, the Democratic Caucus worked in the house and senate to pass ESHB 1296 (engrossed substitute House Bill 1296) as session law and the bill awaits the Governor's signature. On May 20th, the Governor signed ESHB 1296, officially turning the bill into state law.

HB 1971

The bill would require health plans that cover prescription hormone therapy to reimburse a 12-month refill supply. Despite its potential for conservative opposition, the bill received an overwhelming majority of bipartisan support.

The Governor signed the bill into law on April 25th, which means it will take effect 90 days after session.

Intersectional Legal Services Proviso

After successfully advocating for a $350,000 proviso sponsored by Representative Jamilla Taylor, the final budget included $150,000 in both 2026 and 2027 for the continuation of this important work.

While these funds are a decrease of overall funding by $400,000, we are grateful for the exhaustive efforts of Representative Jamilla Taylor of the 30th District.

Reparations Study Proviso

The reparations study, funded at $300,000 was introduced by 37th LD Representative Chipalo Street. This historic win to begin the work of understanding what is needed to equitably and justly approach the question of reparations for descendents of chattel slavery in Washington State.

HB 1217: Rent Stabilization

This legislative session brought a historic win for Washington state's renters, as both the house and senate passed HB 1217, limiting annual increases to rent to 7% plus inflation, up to 10%.

According to a 2020 study, more than a quarter of the LGBTQAI+ population in Washington have experienced homelessness.

Trans Day of Visibility Resolution

Lavender Rights Project was invited by the offices of Senators Manka Dhingra and Claire Wilson to join members in the Senate Gallery on March 31st, when the Senate read and passed Resolution 8642, commemorating Transgender Day of Visibility.

Covenant Homeownership Program

Representative Jamilla Taylor is a bastion of supporting the Black community in Washington state. This historic program began after Rep. Taylor sponsored HB 1474, which passed the legislature in 2023.

This session, Rep. Taylor sponsored HB 1696, which expanded eligibility for this program and provides loan forgiveness for program participants who are under the 80% median income.

After outgoing Governor, Jay Inslee, included a "Wealth Tax" in his proposed budget, the Senate and House took up this tax on Washington's wealthiest individuals. Washington ranks 49 out of 50 states in terms of how burdensome our tax code is on lower income households.

Black Americans have been disenfranchised from voting and the civic engagement process since the foundation of our country. HB 1147, sponsored by Representative Farivar, would have increased access to civic engagement for incarcerated and institutionalized individuals in state custody.

Juvenile justice is fundamental to Black Liberation. HB 1274 would allow for incarcerated people to petition to receive shorter sentences by retroactively removing what are called "juvenile points," which normally count against incarcerated individuals who committed crimes when they were minors.

Alternatives to policing are essential for Black Liberation. HB 1816, if it had passed, would have taken steps to fulfill the promises of 2020 to implement an alternative crisis response program, challenging the Seattle Police Officer's Guild monopoly on alternatives to policing.

LRP celebrates the many wins from the 2025 Washington legislative session. HB 1296 represents what can happen when legislators take the risk of advancing policy that is intersectional and life saving to so many communities in Washington.

LRP will continue to prioritize progressive policy in the areas of DEI + Criminal Justice Reform, Economic Justice, and LGBTQ + Gender Affirming Care. Additionally, we look forward to supporting the forward movement of the groundbreaking reparations study championed by Representative Street.

Lavender Rights Project provides life-saving legal and direct services that are by-and-for Black and gender diverse communities throughout WA and the United States.

Your donation makes it possible for us to support our community.

Your generosity frees the organization from common funding restrictions and allows us to better serve our community in crucial ways; however, we must rely more heavily on community-based funding sources and individual donors like you.

By investing in the ability for Black gender diverse community members to protect, assert, and fight for their legal rights, for their right to the pursuit of happiness, we all come closer to true self-determination, autonomy, and resilience.

We are excited to serve our communities, and you can be a part of making the magic happen by making a donation to Lavender Rights Project today.

Please use the following resources to dive deeper into the legislative session, the bills we highlighted in this report, and upcoming campaigns LRP will be participating in and developing during the 2025-26 interim and legislative session.

Session Media Mentions and Public Appearances

• Real Change - Seattleites Resist Trump Admin's Efforts to Eliminate Trans Rights
• Seattle Times - With Trans People Under Attack, Time for Allies to Step Up
• Seattle Channel - Seattle City Council Select Committee Presentation
• Progress Alliance - 2025 Legislative Recap Session

Social Media Videos

• Legislative Session Recap (Sine Die)
• Day 94 of 105 Update
• Day 89 of 105 Update
• Action Alert 3 (HB 1296)
• Day 75 of 105 Update
• Action Alert 2 (HB 1296)
• Mid Session Cut Off Update
• Action Alert 1 (HB1296)

Legislative Coverage

• Washington State Standard - Parental rights overhaul gains final approval in WA Legislature
• The Stranger - Brian Heywood tortures us with more ballot initiatives
• Washington State Standard - Cap on rent increases across Washington is signed into law
• Seattle Times – WA bill inspired by Renton family's reparations quest signed into law