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A rather unique opportunity to pass a ace positive bill in the state of Washington.


azner

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Hello i'm not sure where to have put this but what ever here it is. I am in the local YMCA youth and government program (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YMCA_Youth_and_Government) and one of the things I can do in this program is i can take a bill to my states capital and propose a bill. and the senate that is made of other high school likes it, it is passed to the governor and if they like it, it's signed into law at the state level. well from how it's been explained to me as of right now any how that's how I see it but i can only take two bills at the most. and to be honest i'm not one to think things like that up. and now we get to the meat of this post. i know that the ace comunity would like to pass some laws on some topic or another. and I am looking for ideas or proposals of ideas or fully written out bills. and feel free to ask any questions pertaining to this. ask me questions here and don't feel afraid to PM me either. i look forward to talk with all of you.

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cavalier080854

As an aro myself, this makes us not part of the LGBT community. See other comments on this aspect at AVEN. This has been true for more than 30 years. The A in LGBTQIA doesn't mean Asexual, but Ally. See the draped flag logo for this, it definitely says ally. Pass a law with Asexuals to be inclusive of the LGBT community. I wish you luck, the LGBT will resist this. When the pink triangle was replaced with the rainbow flag in the UK, it was meant to be inclusive for everyone who wasn't straight. A point lost over time. Asexuals have been overlooked by other more recent vocal minorities. This is how it is in the LGBT community outside of campuses. ( I'm not bothered by this, I want nothing to do with the LGBT crowd and the drama it entails, this is for future aces).

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thank you for the input. And i know what you talk of but the subject is between the lgbt+ and the ace/aro community, and could easily be solved through time. and im not even sure how a bill like that would be made or enforced and keep in mind this bill would only be in effect in the state of washington and would not be a federal law. but thank you for the idea i hope to get more from the community and take the ideas that are rather pressing and can get the ball rolling for other states.

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I think the most urgent issue is to get more visibility by being officially acknowledged. It would help if wherever people get asked about their sexual orientation asexual is one of the options. That is currently not the case in almost any official context (like university enrolment for example). If you're lucky there is an option "other" or "refuse to answer", but I don't find it satisfactory. It looks like a minor thing, but it took a lot of us ages until we figured out that asexuality even exists, so it would help a lot. Personally I don't think we face typical discrimination issues like homophobia for example. Erasure on the other hand (which by the way we share with bi-/pansexuals) is still a problem.

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yes i can see how that could be made in to a bill that i could easily wright up easily enough and i'm sure no one would mind if i included more then just a-spec in this. for example adding in the bi and pansexuals as well. saying something along the lines of you must had all of the large groups in like a-spec bi/pan and some others after i do some more research on the topic. and with there being so many smaller sexualitys out there requering an "other":(fill in the blank) option for thous with super unknow sexualitys. so yes i can see where this would work thank you for the suggestion time warp. i will put some thought in to this one.

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@azner Hey! I'm in the legislature program at the California Y&G group. What a small world! We should definitely chat sometime about Y&G. As for ace bills, I have no idea.

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I don't know about Washington's public school sex-ed curriculum is like. But, if they touch on sexuality / sexual orientations, you could maybe require them to touch on asexuality.

Also, given that I have some experience in Y&G (albeit in a different state), if you ever need anything, I'd always be happy to help.

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As of right now, asexuals are only "protected" in New York and Vermont. I live in California, and I sometimes work in an industry that has the unofficial motto "sex sells." I'm terrified of what could happen to my employment and future opportunities if I were outed in the industry.

 

@yourcaptaiin check out Asexual Outreach, they're doing good work with sex ed programs.

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thank you yourcaptaiin and borkfork for the input i can definitely see what i can do with the sex ed part. and yourcaptaiin yeah sure hit me up some time would enjoy talking about yag with someone else.

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It is against the law in Washington State to discriminate based on sexual orientation -- so asexuals would be covered under that.  

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Hey, @Joe Parrish you know way more about legislation than any of us. Got any ideas for state-level legislation dealing with a-spec people / community?

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Joe the Stoic

First, I would say not to pass something to push asexuality into the LGBTQ community.  I don't think that is a proper association to make.

 

Secondly, I think inclusion in the sex-ed curriculum of the state would be good for asexual visibility.  You could even put forward a simple resolution to be passed by both chambers, acknowledging the asexual community.

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Good points, Joe Parrish and VY Canis Majoris. While some of us feel a connection to LGBT+, others don't. There are also quite a few points where we are a bit different. And yes, I agree, we're not really suffering, at least not from discrimination. There might be a correlation between asexuality and certain mental health issues, but that is still a matter for research. But then again, quantitative research about asexuality is terribly difficult. The AVEN community census is a good thing, but might not be representative for all asexuals (who in their majority might not even know about AVEN, we just don't know).

 

The main point is visibility. Sex-ed would be good for that, inclusion in any kind of question (surveys mainly) where sexual orientation is asked for would be good too.

 

It might be good to rise more awareness within the medical profession as well. There has been some enormous progress since DJ started AVEN, but there is still work to do.

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Hermit Advocate
15 hours ago, borkfork said:

Worth a read.

 

What does sexual orientation mean?

As defined in the law, "sexual orientation" means heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, and gender expression or identity.

It would be nice to have asexuality included on the list. If only to cover our asses. 

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yes i agree with joe parrish on the no lgbt community laws and the likes that does not need legislation for a resolution to that issue. And thank you bork fork for that little bit of washington law and like hey you in the corner said maybe a revision to that bill to be more inclusive to everyone not just the three listed in the law. and when I have time i will do a more indepth read off that state law. thank you for posting that bork fork. And with the suffering thing that was brought up i agree to some extent with that with timewarps discrimination point. But what the A-spec comunity suffers from is lack of visibility and education. with that being said the sex ed and multi choice questions on what you identify as seem to be the best candidates so far.

And @Joe Parrish when you say both chambers I think you missed my first post where i said this was a program i was taking called youth and government. Youth and government is run by the YMCA and in the state of washington all the yag groups across the state (about 800 or so high schoolers in all as of last year) meet in the capital (olympia) on the floor of the house and every member brings a bill or two and presents it to the other yag members and have a debate on if to "pass" the bill or not if it does not "pass" nothing happens to it but if it does "pass" from the mock trial then it goes to the washington state governor and if the governor likes it they sign it and its passed in to law. More on that in the first post link.So all in all probably the easiest way to get a bill passed/changed and why i said this was a unique opportunity because there is no formal political BS to deal with. 

EDIT: so the above is wrong this is really just a mock bill i misunderstood how it worked.

 

But other than that thank you all for the contributions on bill ideas and the positive conversation so far thank you.

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On 1/7/2017 at 9:55 AM, Hey you in the corner said:

It would be nice to have asexuality included on the list. If only to cover our asses. 

That's all you need.  An entirely new piece of legislation is not necessary, nor is it necessary to include any about LGBT, etc.   Just add "asexual" to the list of other orientations.  

 

The state legislators in the 43rd District or the 46th District (both in Seattle) would, I' sure, be happy to support that addition.  I know some of them and know quite a bit about Washington State legislation.  

 

This would be a "policy" addition, meaning no $$ involved, so it could float through pretty easily.  

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  • 1 month later...

ok so what i have come up with for my mock bill is to get rid of abstinence only sex ed.

and stuffs about sex and other related sex ed stuffs 

Spoiler

and teach abstinence plus with included LGBT+ stuffs like sex with the same gender. but in two classes/units, one with the sex education with the LGBT+ topics and the other as a mandatory class of std's and aids with the birth controls and condom use. because even if your not going to take the act of sex ed class that's fine but std's effect others and we should all know how to effectively know the signs and destigmatise getting tested. to help the spread of std's. 

any more help would be great when i get it all typed up and stuff i may post it here

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@azner if you are interested in asexuality-related legislation I have a couple essays/papers that I definitely recommend checking out:

  • "Compulsory Asexuality" - Elizabeth Emens, Stanford Law Review, 2014 - a very detailed discussion of potential legal issues for asexuals in the United States, such as discrimination law and marriage consummation requirements, and also includes discussion of current legal policy as it relates to asexuality (including things like the New York antidiscrimination legislation). It's currently the most well-known and comprenesive work on asexuality and legal policy.
  • "The Epistemic Contract of Bisexual Erasure", Kenji Yoshino, Stanford Law Review, 2000. While primarily focused on legal considerations around bisexuality, it also includes some musing on asexuality as well.

Also, I know that David Jay has been doing some work with the NY Education Department about asexual-inclusive sex ed specifically - he posted some flyers with tips here that may be of interest.

And if you haven't seen it yet, there's an introduction to current Washington State Sex Ed laws here, that would be good to review so you can decide what exact wording you would like to amend or add.

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ohhh this is definitely something to look into thank you sennkestra. if you ever stumble across something else please send it my way if you dont mind.

this is going to be very helpful in the forming of my mock bill.

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The Terrible Travis

I'd rather you propose a bill to implement a single-payer healthcare system or ranked-choice-voting, but hey, that's just me.

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And a single-payer system in Washington State is really, really needed.  

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see i don't know if you have picked up on it or not but this is a mock bill and through this program will not be passed into law.  so this bill has zero impact on actual state law.

however i'm not sure how it works but there is a way to pass it to the actual state legislature. because in the past there have been bills turned into law that went through this program. however i don't know how that works. so overall i doubt this bill thorough YAG will become a law. so yes i agree with you on that. a bill like mine not only is a great idea it is one that i can take to the event and debate about without doing too much work (still a lot of work btw) but to write up that kinda bill would be way more complicated than what i would need for YAG. also i'm passionate about this particular topic. so from my point of view the bill im writing up is better for the purpose that i am using it for. i like that idea tho i may take a second bill who knows.

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  • 1 month later...

so this is the mock bill in its final form if i like it or not. (at least for YAG anyhow).  not that i can't change it more if i decide to actually send it to the state government at a later date. 

Spoiler

 

Sec. 1.  The Youth Legislature finds that abstinence only sexual health education needs to be added on to. Along with sexual identity being added to the education programs.

(1) not only will this act help to educate about lgbt+ sexualitys and romantic orientaions. It will help to educate beyond abstinence only sexual health.

(2) teaching and educating about lgbt+ sexualitys and romantic orientaions may help people who are questioning their identities it may also help those who don’t know that there are orientations as options they never knew about.

(3) Adding on to abstinence only sexual education programs to be abstinence plus has helped to decrease the amount of unwanted teen pregnancies. Along with that abstinence plus teaches more safe sexual practices.

Sec. 2 WAC  WAC 392-410-140 is amended to read as follows:  WAC 392-410-140 (5)  All sexual health education programs must include an emphasis on abstinence as the only one hundred percent effective means of preventing unintended pregnancy, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. All sexual health education programs must also provide medically and scientifically accurate information on all other methods of preventing unintended pregnancy, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Abstinence may not be taught as the one and only method of preventing unintended pregnancy, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A new section is added to WAC 392-410-140 to read as follows: (9) All sexual health education programs must include sexual and romantic  identity and sexuality education. And must use the proper terms and definitions as defined by the community of the particular sexuality being taught about. And must include gay, lesbian, bisexuality, pansexuality, Asexuality and aromanticism. Alongside any other sexuality/romantic orientation that is asked about during instruction of sexual health education programs.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. This act takes effect after 90 days of being passed.

New section. Sec. 5  The parties to make the new sexual health education curriculum will be up to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

 

 

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