Cooper Point Journal
January
With the commencement of the new year, Washington State enters the 2025 legislative session. Two prominent figures enter the legislative session this year–Cyndy Jacobsen and Phil Fortunato. Cyndy Jacobsen is a State Representative for the 25th district whose prefiled bills seek to heavily attack trans rights in Washington state. She works alongside Phil Fortunato, a Senator for Washington’s 31st Legislative District whose prefiled bills seek to attack immigrant’s protections.
Jacobsen’s prefiled bills include HB1038: “Prohibiting puberty blocking medications, cross-sex hormones, and gender transition surgeries for minors”. Jacobsen’s HB1038 seeks to ban health care providers from administering gender affirming care for minors, attempting to ban licensed providers from “knowingly engag[ing] in or caus[ing] any of the following practices to be performed on a minor if the practice is performed 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” (p.1, 8-13). Jacobsen goes on to attempt to define gender as “the psychological, behavioral, social, and cultural aspects of being male or female” (p.2, 35-36). In Jacobsen’s bill, she defines gender as a cultural norm– creating an unclear line for gender expectations and exclusively attacking the autonomy of trans folks. Consistent with anti-trans legislation critique, Jacobsen’s bill exclusively targets gender affirming care for trans minors as HB1038 would continue to allow for gender affirming surgeries if they are–in Jacobsen’s language–consistent with the minor’s sex.
Jacobsen’s bill only exempts potentially gender affirming care in the case of a child born as intersex, such as tapering off of gender affirming care, in emergency treatment of a previous gender affirming surgery, or “any procedure undertaken because a minor suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that is certified by a physician and that would place the minor in imminent danger of death or impairment of a major bodily function unless surgery is performed” (p.2, 29-33). Jacobsen’s written exceptions are limited to physical emergencies or as to maintain gender-sex cultural conformity. This neglects the mental health of trans folks and fails to account for the rates of physical harm that trans youth experience as a result of being rejected gender affirming care. Jacobsen’s cultural reliance on determining one’s access to gender-affirming care is vehemently transphobic and harmful to the mental and ultimately physical health of trans youth.
Phil Fortunato’s prefiled bills include SB5002, a bill targeting immigrant protections in Washington state. The all encompassing bill targets a variation of immigrant-specific protections intended to maintain equal civil protections and prevent racial attacks on folks of color. The bill imposes new sections to Title 43 RCW (State Government–Executive) which ultimately highlights an increasingly coordinated relationship between federal immigration enforcement services and Washington State government, administration, and law enforcement. The bill also seeks to repeal 13 codified immigration specific protections in Washington State.
The newly proposed text includes an immediate ban on sanctuary policies (p.3, 26-28). Section 5 also seeks to mandate compliance in information sharing between state government officials (within the scope of their position) and federal immigration services by making it punishable for a Washington state official to not aid in, “sending the information to or requesting, receiving, or reviewing the information from a federal immigration agency” (p.4, 4-6). In case of violation, Fortunato inscribes the law as enforceable against “any executive or administrative state, county, or municipal officer who violates his or her duties under this chapter [as being] subject to action by the attorney general in the exercise of his or her authority under the state Constitution and state law” (p.6, 33-37).
In addition to the newly written legislation, the existing chapters of the RCW that Fortunato seeks to repeal aims to target protections of civil services and rights for immigrants. SB5002 hopes to repeal RCW 2.28.310 which prevents “judges, court staff, court security personnel, prosecutors, and personnel of the prosecutor’s office” from inquiring or collecting “information about an individual’s immigration or citizenship status, or place of birth, unless there is a connection between such information and an investigation into a violation of state or local criminal law.” Under threat of perjury, the open inquiry of one’s immigration status immediately invites violence unto immigrant and undocumented folks in court spaces. The other RCW’s overturned by Fortunato’s bill continue to minimize immigrant access to court spaces where RCW 2.28.300–the “Courts open to all act”–repeals the finding that unrestrained court accessibility is essential to equal access to justice–especially when caring for folks with sensitive documentation statuses. This is furthered by SB5002’s repeal of RCW 2.28.330 which would reallow a person to be “subject to civil arrest while going to, remaining at, or returning from, a court facility…[exceptions enclosed].” Fortunato’s bill is an encompassing example of violence on immigrants and undocumented folks.
The incoming legislative session is teeming with bills that reflect the values of the incoming Trump administration and need to be approached with the same precarity that many are viewing the Trump administration. As state legislators are adopting the values of federal representatives, there is no doubt federal agendas are penetrating state interests. As a result of the intensifying legislature and its indigestible nature, projects such as Onya Robertson’s What in the State of WA?! podcast seeks to break down upcoming bills, the influence they will have on the people that experience them, and the legislators pushing them. Also included in the podcast is discussion about civic engagement and the legislative process coming from Onya, a current MPA Evergreen student and a former Washington State Legislative Intern at Washington’s capitol. The podcast’s aim is to further the understanding of the people, who want to know about their legislative processes. Given our chaotic present and uncertain future, evident with these proposed bills, this information is more important than ever.
