1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

The United States Senate passed the Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act without amendments, marking the first anti-LGBTQ+ legislation passed by Congress in over 30 years. And you didn’t just allow it. You voted for it. You voted for this bill. You voted to erase vital, life-saving care for members of our own military. This federal statute is not only anti-family, it paves the way for more federally mandated restrictions on trans care. I voted for you, because I believed in your promise to protect Washington citizens. The anti-trans rhetoric that we see in red states has no place in Washington state. To say that your constituents are disappointed in you is an understatement. I know that this bill had a lot of ancillary policies that were shoved in nefariously. And I understand that a budget has to be passed. But it is your job — your responsibility — to ensure those pieces do not pass. You must resist. You must fight. Senator Canwell said in 2017: “Transgender service members are honorable and patriotic. They, and all Americans protecting the freedoms and values we hold dear,must receive our utmost respect and dignity. Discrimination in any form is unacceptable. We must defeat this discriminatory policy.” Senator Murray said in 2023: “If you continue down this dangerous path—bullying kids, erasing LGBTQ people, and demonizing them with dangerous rhetoric—I will rise against you every step of the way. And I will do so with Pride.” And: “We’ve got to push back against these attacks on trans kids every way we can: in the courts, with legislation, through executive action, and by speaking out—and speaking up. Which is why I’m here today to tell everyone facing these hateful attacks that you are not alone and you have so many people in your community and in your corner.” Where are those words now? I beg you: do better for the people of your state, who trust you to protect us. Washington’s queer community will not be voting in your favor, if you can’t vote in ours.