1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

Vote no on the PROTECT Kids Act. This bill would strip schools of the ability to support transgender and gender-nonconforming students by requiring parental consent before a teacher can even use a student's preferred name or pronouns. For kids in hostile home environments, that's not parental involvement — it's forced outing, with real consequences including family conflict, mental health crises, and youth homelessness. The bill also creates a legal mess it can't clean up. Critical terms like "gender markers" and "sex-based accommodations" are left undefined, and there's no exception for abusive households or emergency situations. Schools get the compliance burden with zero additional funding, and the whole thing likely conflicts with Title IX and Fourteenth Amendment equal protection guarantees. This isn't protecting kids — it's putting the most vulnerable ones at greater risk. Vote no.