The rights and dignity of our LGBT youth are under attack in Republican-controlled state legislatures across the nation, from laws against transgender girls playing on girls’ school sports teams to criminalization of gender-affirming medical care.
The Equality Act, when and if it becomes law, would safeguard the national LGBTQ community from much of this crusade of oppression. While I have every confidence that Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell will support it when and if the Senate votes on it, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler has voted against the Equality Act all four times it has been voted on by the House.
According to The Trevor Project’s National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health last year, no less than 42 percent of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year including more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth. Those disturbing numbers will likely only rise as political attacks on the rights and dignity of our LGBTQ youth get worse.
Congresswoman Herrera Beutler has helped enable all of this through her record of opposing LGBTQ rights in Congress. No resident of Washington’s 3rd district who stands in solidarity with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning Americans — or is a member of the community themselves — should be voting for her this November.
Nicholas Cook
Chehalis
