SPOKANE, Wash. – Before Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed SB 5917 into law on Wednesday, the main advocates for the bill came from Spokane.
“I’m so proud of us,” KJ January, director of advocacy and engagement at the Spectrum Center said. “I’m so proud of Councilmember (Zack) Zappone and City Council President (Betsy) Wilkerson because every time I spoke to the legislators inOlympia they said ‘we are so glad that you’re here speaking and we’re so glad to hear something being pushed from the Eastern side of the state.’”
The push for the new law, which closed a loophole where defacing public property could not be considered a hate crime, stemmed from a very specific Spokane issue. To celebrate LGBTQ+ pride, Spokane painted two pride flag crosswalks, one downtown and one outside the Odyssey Youth Movement in the Perry District. The latter was vandalized on three consecutive nights last October, but because the sidewalk was on city property, the act was not legally a hate crime.
Realizing this loophole existed, Councilmember Zappone asked Spokane’s State Senator Andy Billig to introduce legislation in Olympia
“I went to Sen. Billig and said ‘hey, we have this loophole in state law,’ and he said ‘that doesn’t seem to make sense,’” Councilmember Zappone said. “Why would there be a loophole that if you spray paint a school with swastikas that wouldn’t be considered a hate crime – that’d only be malicious mischief – but if you do a house or a church that would be?”
Over the course of two months, January testified before House and Senate committees in support of the bill, which passed both houses with bipartisan support.
January says the speed with which this law was passed shows her the system can work when all lines up, but also says this legislation is a first step.
“It’s so important that we show up and we’re present and we vote for an inclusive Spokane,” she said. “I just want to bring the humanity back into politics… and with this bill and with this amendment to the (law), in Spokane we can actually belong. And I hope we can extend that to other places.”
