ORPIB Advocacy Committee Update, March 2025

Dear ORPIB Member,

Many in our community are under threat from the Trump Administration. Fortunately, in Oregon and Washington, we are somewhat more insulated, but we must remain vigilant.

Your ORPIB Advocacy Committee is engaging with Oregon state legislators, including LGBTQ+ Caucus members, to support good bills and oppose bad bills. We are 100% volunteer-driven, so please join us!

Our work this year

Since January, more than 3,300 bills have been introduced in the Oregon Legislative Session. The Advocacy Committee spent several weeks identifying bills, discussing their potential impact, and narrowing down the list to 46 priority bills.

We have seen some GOOD bills this session, like House Resolution 3, recognizing and honoring the history of Black drag in Oregon and numerous bills to help businesses of all sizes.
There are also many BAD bills that would take away transgender rights and make it easier to ban books. We do not expect these to pass, but we are keeping our eye on them.

If you would like to get involved, please come to an Advocacy Committee meeting. We meet virtually biweekly on Fridays at noon; email advocacy@orpib.com for a calendar invitation and meeting link. Meetings are open to all ORPIB members.

Here are some examples of ORPIB priority bills:

Support:

Economic development
- HB 2890: Allows the Oregon Innovation Council to give grants for economic development in rural areas.
- SB 720: Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center to construct and operate the Sunrise Campus Cultural Workforce Center.
Public contracting
- HB 2337: Creates a small business preferences program for state procurement and calls for plans to address the 2023 disparity study.
HIV
- HB 2942: Ensures pharmacists are paid the same as other health care providers for services related to PrEP and PEP.
Racial justice
- HB 2995: Sets up a task force to look at ways in which the state can give reparations for past acts of racism to African-American people who live in the state.

Oppose

Anti-transgender bills
- HB 2037, SB 618, and SB 787: Tells school districts to designate sports by gender and forbids males from playing in female sports.
- HB 3330: Allows a health care worker to object to participate in an abortion, physician-assisted suicide, or gender-affirming treatment.
Book banning
- SB 212: This would set up a ratings system for library materials based on the age of young library patrons and restrict access as guided by the ratings.
- SB 661: Stops the review of social studies standards by the State Board of Education.