“Parents’ Bill of Rights” Gets a Reality Check in Olympia

Democrats outright passed a FOX News bait initiative that could hurt queer students last year, not because they agreed with it, but because they could fix it quicker without some over-sensationalized, misinformation riddled fight in the court of public opinion.

Washington House Democrats were far too nice to Republican’s yesterday, giving them the floor for almost five hours to spew anti-trans misinformation, humble-brag about the glory days of coaching little league or how their niece would probably beat trans girls in sports anyway, and fear-monger about everything from pornography in the classroom to school nurses misdiagnosing brain bleeds to vape fumigated bathrooms in a purely performative “debate” on over Senate Bill 5181, a bill that amends the so-called “Parent’s Bill of Rights.” Personally, I would’ve cut their mics the second Rep. Deb Manjarrez (R-Yakima) veered within inches of fetal phrenology, spouting off irrelevant and limited research over babies's minuscule sex-based strength differences at birth.

The House ultimately voted 56-39 to pass the bill, which scrapped some of the worst parts of the original “Parents’ Bill of Rights” and brought it into line with existing state laws. SB 5181 removes the sections that would’ve let parents snoop through their kids’ medical and mental health records or receive alerts every time a student sought care — including therapy or gender-affirming services. Despite GOP efforts to tack on every anti-queer policy they’ve seen praised on Fox News, Republicans only managed to pass two amendments: one that shortens the window for schools to give parents access to records (from 45 days to 10), and another requiring schools to publish a list of all medical services students can access without parental permission.

Rep. Adison Richards (360) 786-7964.

Only one Democrat, Rep. Adison Richards (D-Gig Harbor), voted against the bill. If you’re trans, queer, or just care about creating safe schools for LGBTQ+ kids, maybe give him a call.

By way of background: this all started with hedge fund CEO Brian Heywood’s astroturf “Let’s Go Washington” campaign, which ran the Parents’ Bill of Rights as part of its 2024 slate of conservative ballot initiatives. Marketed to tug at the heartstrings of Eastern Washington Republicans with four blonde daughters (whose names probably all end in "Leigh"), the initiative reads like a culture war Mad Lib. It promised to let parents “examine” instructional materials, access student records, and submit written opt-outs for any classroom activity that made them vaguely uncomfortable. But the language was so vague and overreaching that even policy experts weren’t sure how it would interact with state law — only that it posed a serious risk to LGBTQ+ students and would bury schools in a mountain of bureaucratic nonsense.

So when Heywood collected enough signatures to qualify the initiative (I-2081) for the ballot, Democrats took an unusual — and strategic — step: they passed it. Not because they agreed with it, but because doing so allowed them to amend it immediately. If it had gone to the voters and passed, state law would’ve locked it in place for two years, no changes allowed. That would’ve meant two years of confusion, policy clashes, and risk to student safety — not to mention a stronger conservative turnout that could have tipped the scales for Let’s Go Washington’s other initiatives, including their attempt to repeal the capital gains tax.

So when Republicans whine that SB 5181 and the related Student’s Bill of Rights, House Bill 1296, amounts to a ploy to gut Heywood’s initiative, it’s hard to disagree. Technically, the bill just puts the “Parent’s Bill of Rights” in line with existing state law, but if Heywood’s goal was to create confusion, stoke fear, and further cement a false narrative that public schools steal your children for eight hours a day and return them all liberal and gay, then yeah, the Democrats plotted against that.

And that's good! But its also the barest of minimums. This should go without saying, but the Democrat trifecta can always do more to help queer and trans kids.

Now the bill goes back to the Senate to meld the two slightly different versions of the bill. Then, to Gov. Bob Ferguson!