Donnelly: Two paths to counter bill

Such services are “gender affirming treatment … and reproductive services,” including (by definition) “genital modification, hysterectomy, mastectomy, penile implant, breast implant, facial feminization services,” among others. The services exempt from parental notification evidently also include abortion.

For these services, the measure eliminates the general requirement of authorities to notify parents of a homeless or runaway child’s whereabouts within 72 hours. So, distraught parents seeking their missing child would get no notification if the child is at a shelter or other unspecified location to obtain gender affirming treatment or other reproductive services.

Parents will not know where their child is, who is caring for them, if they are being exploited, or how their lives are being permanently changed.

The bond between parent and child is the strongest in nature. It follows that the concept of government enforcing a wedge between minor children and parents is a strong motivator for resistance, driving a growing grassroots effort statewide.

Opponents advancing Referendum 101, Reject 5599 (www.reject5599.com), assert that SB 5599 “allows the state to hide a child’s location from parents” while the child obtains life-changing health services; that “it equates not using a young person’s preferred pronouns to child abuse; eliminates parents’ due process where the child is concerned; removes parents’ ability to make major medical decisions for their child; and allows a minor to have life-altering treatments and surgeries.”

Even if reunited with the minor child, parents may incur substantial long-term costs to care for their loved one as a result of the interventions of the state’s agents.

The obvious risks to the minor youth from traffickers and abusers add to parents’ concerns. Trust in the public schools is consequently eroded.

Dawn Seaver of Washington Parents’ Rights in Education sees the stakes in even broader terms: “As the state battles parents for control of their children, they ignore the rights children have to the care and protection of their parents.”

Washington voters have two paths to counter SB 5599.

Proponents of R-101 must turn in 200,000 signatures by mid-July to meet a July 31 deadline. If so, “Accept or Reject” SB 5599 will likely appear on the November 2023 ballot, potentially revoking the law.

Initiative 2081 to the Legislature (www.LetsgoWA.com, “Parents Have the Right to Know”) must gather 400,000 signatures by mid-December 2023 to appear on the 2024 ballot.

This initiative addresses growing divisions between parents and schools, establishing “certain rights to parents and guardians of public-school children, including rights to review instructional materials, inspect records, receive certain notifications, and opt out of certain activities like sexual-health education …It would require public schools to provide parents and guardians with certain notifications, including about medical services.”

Such a sweeping societal change as SB 5599 cries out for input from voters, starting by approving both Referendum 101 and Initiative 2081.

Signature gathering for both is proceeding statewide. Locations are updated on www.Reject5599.com, and www.LetsGoWA.com.