February 7, 2022 Newsletter

Washington LGBTQ Commission – Clark County Town Hall

The Washington State LGBTQ Commission will host a public town hall with LGBTQ community leaders in the Clark County area, on Friday, February 11th from 5:00 - 6:30 pm. LGBTQ leaders and community members from Clark, Pacific, Wahkiakum, Lewis, Cowlitz, Skamania, and Klickitat Counties are welcome to participate. In order to comply with safety and healthy protocols, the LGBTQ Commission is requiring that all participants register ahead of time, present evidence of COVID-19 vaccination (or medical exception confirmation), wear masks, and keep physical distance during the meeting. We have made arrangements with the location of the meeting to have enough space for physical distance and to comply with health and safety protocols. Please use this form to register and to confirm you have read our health and safety protocols. You will be asked to present evidence of COVID-19 vaccination at the event. https://forms.gle/q6AePBuBBr4FNVe3A

Bills that we are watching that made it past the first cutoff

HB 1015 - Creating the Washington equitable access to credit act

HB 1141 - Increasing access to the death with dignity act

HB 1756 - Concerning solitary confinement

HB 1802 - Increasing access and representation in policy-making processes for individuals with disabilities.

HB 1840 - Improving diversity, equity, and mental health at the community and technical colleges

HB 1851 - Preserving a pregnant individual's ability to access abortion care

HB 1956 - Exempting from public disclosure sensitive records pertaining to current and formerly incarcerated individuals' dignity and safety

HB 1961 - Concerning the authority of the courts to waive auditor's fees for filing and recording name change orders

HB 2057 - Strengthening diversity, equity, and inclusion in the state patrol workforce

HB 2059 - Concerning real estate agency law, but only to clarify that the statutory duties of real estate brokers apply to all parties and prohibiting the delivery of buyer unfair 

SB 5129 - Concerning the possession of vapor, vapor products, tobacco, and tobacco products by minors

SB 5161 - Teaching Washington's tribal history, culture, and government

SB 5376 - Promoting awareness of the governor's office of the education ombuds

SB 5532 - Establishing a prescription drug affordability board

SB 5693 - Making 2021-2023 fiscal biennium supplemental operating appropriations

SB 5793 - Concerning stipends for low-income or underrepresented community members of state boards, commissions, councils, committees, and other similar groups.

Opportunities for the Community

Washington Department of Health – Health Equity Listening Sessions

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RAIN – Resources for Inclusion

Adding Pronouns to Your Signature Line FAQ

We're proud to announce that the RAIN Best Practices subcommittee has completed an FAQ for Adding Pronouns to Your Signature Line. State employees have worked to create more inclusive workplaces for each other and the general public. Using pronouns in email signatures sends a message that state agencies are inclusive of everyone in Washington state and acknowledges gender diversity. As this practice becomes more commonplace, many people have raised questions about its use. The Rainbow Alliance and Inclusion Network (RAIN), developed an FAQ document to attach to pronouns in your signature line for reference. Please feel free to share this resource with your agency and workgroups. 

Example:

Your Name

Pronouns: they/them

Agency

Contact Info

You can find more recommendations from our Best Practices subcommittee on our website https://lgbtq.wa.gov/rain/rain-subcommittees.

We are thrilled to announce the highly-anticipated release of two must-watch LGBTQIA Filipino films, available now to stream in the United States.

From two of the Philippines' most acclaimed directors and featuring star-studded ensembles, this double feature will make you laugh and cry, and bring the best of Philippines LGBTQIA cinema straight home to your living room.

We can fully support all these efforts by providing our media toolkit which offers promotional language and materials for each of the films, including synopses, trailers, and graphics.

LGBTQ Filipino Films Toolkit

You can watch the trailers here: https://bit.ly/3AoZi6n

Thank you to Vice-Chair of the LGBTQ Commission Michelle Kelly-Barroga for this information.

Washington State Parks Survey

Washington State Parks is collecting personal opinions, memories and stories to help agency staff better understand how they can meet the needs of visitors, community members and all Washingtonians. Please take a few minutes to fill out the survey and share your thoughts! The survey closes February 15. Take survey Please contact Washington State Parks; brand manager, Stephanie McDermott (stephanie.mcdermott@parks.wa.gov) if you have any questions.

Washington Courts – Proposed Rule Changes to the Code of Judicial

The Washington Courts will be receiving comments on a proposed change to their Code of Judicial Conduct to include “gender identity” and “gender expression.” The Courts will be receiving comments through April 30th, 2022. You can read the full rulemaking changes information and submit comments through this link: https://www.courts.wa.gov/court_rules/?fa=court_rules.proposedRuleDisplay&ruleId=5939

Department of Health Youth Advisory Council

Youth Advisory Council (compensated) 

DOH’s Adolescent and Young Adult Health team is seeking Washingtonians ages 13-21 to apply to be a member of a new Youth Advisory Council. The council is a community engagement group comprised of young people to discuss thoughts, opinions, and ideas about public health topics relevant to adolescents and young adults and make recommendations to Department of Health staff on adolescent and young adult public health programming. See flyer and additional details in English and Spanish  

Say It Out Loud Conference

We ARE Family

Honoring and recognizing the many structures and diverse expressions of families, biological and chosen.

The 2022 Annual SIOL Conference will be Virtual

Thursday, May 26

The Saying It Out Loud (SIOL) Conference focuses on information sharing and networking to improve behavioral health services and decrease disparities faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ+) individuals. The conference strives to provide space to educate and share knowledge with attendees to better serve and support LGBTQ+ individuals and their families. Find out more about the SIOL conference by visiting this link.

Legislative Session Updates

The LGBTQ Commission identifies legislative priorities annually and works with our Legislative Advisors and other legislators to advance bills that expand the rights of the community. 

The current bills being monitored for 2022-23 so far are:

• Prescription drug affordability board
• Medicaid coverage of HIV drugs
• Possession of vapor, vapor products, tobacco, and tobacco products by minors (large percentage of LGBTQ+ youth affected)
• Keeping Department of Children, Youth, and Families working through an equity lens
• Decriminalization of sex work
• Increasing access to infertility treatment
• Increasing diversity, equity, and mental health at community and technical colleges
• Preserving abortion care rights  

You can find a full list of the bills we are watching in the 2022 session through this link.

The LGBTQ and ally community in Washington has several ways to be involved in advocating for issues that are important to us. Here are some tools you can use:

Washington State LGBTQ Legislative Caucus 

Contact Your Legislator

• Find Your Legislator: Enter your address to find your current legislative and congressional district.
• Legislative Hotline: 1-800-562-6000 (TTY for Hearing Impaired 1-800-635-9993). Callers to the Hotline can leave a brief message for their district legislators, Governor or Lt. Governor on issues of concern or on questions they may have about bills or laws. For non-English speaking callers, the Hotline offers interpreter services for many languages.
• E-mail: Click a legislator’s name to go to the e-mail form for that legislator
• Visiting the Legislature: Information about directions, parking, Capitol Campus activities and events, and tours.

Bill Information

• Bill Information: Find out the latest information on a piece of legislation.
• Legislative Process: Learn how a bill becomes a law.
• How to Testify in Committee: Your opportunity to testify comes at the committee hearings. If you cannot appear before a committee, contact your legislator making your position on a bill known.
• TVW: Washington’s public affairs network, providing gavel-to-gavel coverage of Washington State Legislature sessions and coverage of the Washington State Supreme Court and public affairs events.

Jobs Opportunities for LGBTQ Washingtonians

Check out the list of job opportunities for the community on our Careers Opportunities page by visiting this link.

We are excited to share job postings sent to the LGBTQ Commission. There are three requirements to be included on our page:

• The job needs to be able to be done in Washington State (virtual works)
• The business must have an inclusivity and/or equal opportunity statement
• The job posting must include a salary range.

 Please send any job opportunity to share with the community to our Program Manager, Tracey Carlos (she/her) to tracey.carlos@lgbtq.wa.gov