The 2019 legislative session is closed so how did we fair?
Our batting average was 0.166
Which some people might not thing that is good, only one bill out of six passed but we are not talking about baseball but the legislature and that is average passage. There is a saying for activists… “see you next year.”
HB-5505 AN ACT CONCERNING THE UPDATING OF STATE FORMS AND APPLICATIONS TO INCLUDE A NONBINARY GENDER OPTION.
Passed in the House not voted on in the Senate
HB-6219 AN ACT CONCERNING SAFE BATHROOM FACILITIES AT SCHOOLS FOR GENDER NONCONFORMING STUDENTS.
The bill passed unanimously in the Senate and it never made it out of the gate in the House.
HB-6482 AN ACT CONCERNING A LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES NETWORK.
The bill never was considered… see HB-7359 which is the bill that was moved forward.
HB-7359 AN ACT CONCERNING A LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND QUEER HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES NETWORK.
Passed in the House and the vote was almost unanimously but never got voted on in the Senate. $250,000 was in the budget for the bill. Note: there might be some hope in the special session as an amendment to the budget.
SB-58 AN ACT CONCERNING GAY AND TRANSGENDER PANIC DEFENSE.
PASSED! On the governor’s desk.
SB-388 AN ACT CONCERNING INTERSEX PERSONS.
The bill passed unanimously in the Senate and it was never heard in the House.
I just wanted you to realize that passing a bill the first time and passing more than one LGBTQ+ bill in a session is very hard. There is kind of an unwritten rule in the legislature… one LGBTQ+ bill a session. Yeah it sucks and I hoped that we could break the curse this session but the curse struck again this session. But I think that they passed the most important
To pass the gender inclusive non-discrimination law five years.
It is also harder to pass any bill because of the budget it is taking up more time in the legislative session, it was a long session this year but it is still relatively short by other state standards, just six months. This year the budget took exceptionally long to pass and also there was a long debate on tolls which will have a special session later this summer. The special session usually do not have any legislation introduced but amendments have been added to the bills being discussed but it is a long shot.
Non-LGBTQ+ bill that I testified for…
HB 7198 AN ACT CONCERNING SOCIAL WORKERS.
Passed!
The bill required any person who uses the title "social worker" to be licensed as a clinical social worker or have a BSW, MSW or a PhD in Social Work.
I emailed my Senator yesterday morning…
[RANT]
The word activism means “a doctrine or practice that emphasizes direct vigorous action especially in support of or opposition to one side of a controversial issue”
I sat and listened at "town hall" meetings to people who said we want gender neutral IDs. We want to ban Trans/Gay Panic defense in criminal cases. We want…
But take a look at the people who sent in testimony for any of those bills and look to see how many individuals sent in testimony. Take a look at how many people shared the CTAC Facebook posts, two three people? I don’t know how many people contacted their legislators but I bet it was less than a dozen and I would even wager that the opposition had more people contact their legislators against the legislation than contacted them in favor of the bills.
Not everyone can sit around the Legislative Office Building (LOB) but it only takes about a half hour to write a testimony for the bill. It only takes a minute to call or email your legislators but how many “activists” took the time? How many people thanked me for taking the time to testify or post on Facebook actually contacted their legislators?
The leaders of the chambers and the legislators keep track of which bills have voter support and which bills do not and when they hear crickets they don’t push the bill forward.
Yes, the opposition probably was whispering into the ears of their legislator friends.
You want legislation to pass… well you have to work for it.
[/RANT]
Our batting average was 0.166
Which some people might not thing that is good, only one bill out of six passed but we are not talking about baseball but the legislature and that is average passage. There is a saying for activists… “see you next year.”
HB-5505 AN ACT CONCERNING THE UPDATING OF STATE FORMS AND APPLICATIONS TO INCLUDE A NONBINARY GENDER OPTION.
Passed in the House not voted on in the Senate
HB-6219 AN ACT CONCERNING SAFE BATHROOM FACILITIES AT SCHOOLS FOR GENDER NONCONFORMING STUDENTS.
The bill passed unanimously in the Senate and it never made it out of the gate in the House.
HB-6482 AN ACT CONCERNING A LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES NETWORK.
The bill never was considered… see HB-7359 which is the bill that was moved forward.
HB-7359 AN ACT CONCERNING A LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND QUEER HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES NETWORK.
Passed in the House and the vote was almost unanimously but never got voted on in the Senate. $250,000 was in the budget for the bill. Note: there might be some hope in the special session as an amendment to the budget.
SB-58 AN ACT CONCERNING GAY AND TRANSGENDER PANIC DEFENSE.
PASSED! On the governor’s desk.
SB-388 AN ACT CONCERNING INTERSEX PERSONS.
The bill passed unanimously in the Senate and it was never heard in the House.
I just wanted you to realize that passing a bill the first time and passing more than one LGBTQ+ bill in a session is very hard. There is kind of an unwritten rule in the legislature… one LGBTQ+ bill a session. Yeah it sucks and I hoped that we could break the curse this session but the curse struck again this session. But I think that they passed the most important
To pass the gender inclusive non-discrimination law five years.
It is also harder to pass any bill because of the budget it is taking up more time in the legislative session, it was a long session this year but it is still relatively short by other state standards, just six months. This year the budget took exceptionally long to pass and also there was a long debate on tolls which will have a special session later this summer. The special session usually do not have any legislation introduced but amendments have been added to the bills being discussed but it is a long shot.
Non-LGBTQ+ bill that I testified for…
HB 7198 AN ACT CONCERNING SOCIAL WORKERS.
Passed!
The bill required any person who uses the title "social worker" to be licensed as a clinical social worker or have a BSW, MSW or a PhD in Social Work.
I emailed my Senator yesterday morning…
Dear Senator BizzarroAnd he replied…
I am emailing you this morning to urge you to vote in favor of HB 7198 An Act Concerning Social Workers.
I am a social worker with a MSW from UConn School of Social Work but I am not a clinical social worker but rather macro social worker. My concentration is in what is called Community Organizing as such I don’t need to have a LMSW or a LCSW but I am still a social worker. Many of the interns working at the LOB are marco social work students and when I was at UConn many of my classmate interned for legislators. You will find us working at places like the CT Coalition to End Homelessness, or Journey Home or other non-profits around Hartford, and the state. We use what we learned at UConn every day and we are proud to display the MSW after our name.
This bill if passed would protect social workers from having their degree degraded by those who have not taken the time to earn a BSW or a MSW but still call themselves “social workers” without taking the time to earn the degree.
Please vote in favor of HB-7198.
Thank you,
Diana
Hi Diana. Just wanted to let you know that I voted in favor of this Bill and it passed through the Senate a few minutes ago. Thank you for reaching out to me with your opinion on this, and please stay in touch.
Gennaro Bizzarro
Connecticut State Senator, 6th District
[RANT]
The word activism means “a doctrine or practice that emphasizes direct vigorous action especially in support of or opposition to one side of a controversial issue”
I sat and listened at "town hall" meetings to people who said we want gender neutral IDs. We want to ban Trans/Gay Panic defense in criminal cases. We want…
But take a look at the people who sent in testimony for any of those bills and look to see how many individuals sent in testimony. Take a look at how many people shared the CTAC Facebook posts, two three people? I don’t know how many people contacted their legislators but I bet it was less than a dozen and I would even wager that the opposition had more people contact their legislators against the legislation than contacted them in favor of the bills.
Not everyone can sit around the Legislative Office Building (LOB) but it only takes about a half hour to write a testimony for the bill. It only takes a minute to call or email your legislators but how many “activists” took the time? How many people thanked me for taking the time to testify or post on Facebook actually contacted their legislators?
The leaders of the chambers and the legislators keep track of which bills have voter support and which bills do not and when they hear crickets they don’t push the bill forward.
Yes, the opposition probably was whispering into the ears of their legislator friends.
You want legislation to pass… well you have to work for it.
[/RANT]
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