Yesterday was an intense day for the EQNM team.
On the high notes: HB142 the Affirmative Consent Education bill was given a unanimous, bipartisan endorsement from the House Health and Human Services Committee.
This was, in part because our Community Organizer, Andrew Echols spoke powerfully and eloquently about the need for teaching Affirmative Consent, and making sure that accusations and investigations of sexual misconduct are followed through.
Andrew shared a deeply personal story, about experiencing harassment at the hand of law enforcement, in his dorm room on campus at his college. He was misgendered, and harassed about the name on his ID by the officer.
The point of his story is that he went to the appropriate reporting entity, in 2019 when this happened, and he has still not received any follow up from Campus officials.
What happened later, was shocking to me. State Representative Stefani Lord mischaracterized Andrews' comments, and accused him of something he flat out didn’t do. And she wasn’t kind when she did it.
Rep. Lord accused Andrew of being the 4th person before her committee who cast blanket accusations about all law enforcement being terrible. Which is NOT what Andrew did when he shared one specific story about one specific officer. And it’s worth noting he spoke to the issue of educating young people about affirmative consent, and the issue of campuses having mechanisms in place for proper follow-up.
Rep. Lord not only accused Andrew of making this blanket accusation, but she told him she offered this “as advice” because “when you make broad accusations about law enforcement you take me out of the game.”
I just have to share with our members how proud I am of Andrew, our Organizer! He shared a personal, emotionally harmful story about being harassed because of his Gender Identity-then the story of being re-traumatized by campus officials in handling the issue.
Andrew was strong, vulnerable, and authentic in expressing the experience that too many LGBTQ young people face.
Rep. Lord was dismissive, paternalistic, condescending, and she was wrong.