Competing bills for Washington state boys and mens commission highlight gender debate

(The Center Square) – A Washington Republican lawmaker, who has spent several years trying to garner support for a commission on boys and men, feels her legislation has been coopted by the other party, with vastly different priorities.Representative Mary Dye’s (R-Pomeroy) latest version of the commission on boys and men is House Bill 2461. The legislation has been a large focus of effort for Dye for the last five years.
The big picture idea of the bill is that the restoration of the family is based upon strong men and women building solid, happy homes “with lots of kids, who don’t need big government. That is also why we need the right kind of people digging into the institutionalized bias impacting the potential of boys and men in our state,” wrote Dye in a Friday text to The Center Square.
Now, Representative April Berg (D-Mill Creek) has introduced House Bill 2401 establishing the Washington boys and men commission. But Dye said the commission makeup and goals are not aligned with her legislation.
Dye said she’s been working for years to strike a neutral approach which up till now, garnered bipartisan support.
“It was the effort of a group of people, both from the most progressive left to the moderate right, and we had a policy that would just simply establish the commission and provide bipartisan membership,” Dye said.
She said the ongoing debate over gender issues has convoluted goals of the commission.
“There are too many people in the Democratic caucus that feel strongly about this language about biological differences between male and female,” she said. “So that’s really what the hang up is.”
Dye said the goal of her bill is to identify policies in education, and otherwise that are tearing down the male identity and said the “catastrophic effects” on young men need to be addressed.
“Our young men getting wrapped up into drugs, crimes, gaming, scrolling in the dark web,” she said. “All the things that we’re seeing happening to our kids, and the boys that are now coming out and being told that you’re not special unless you identify into one of these identity groups, these victim groups. That’s an institutional flaw that’s creating chaos in our families, in our homes.”
Berg’s bill states: “The boys and men commission shall place an emphasis on addressing the 13 challenges faced by boys and men of color, those in rural locations, 14 those who identify as LGBTQ, and those who are socioeconomically 15 disadvantaged and often find themselves left out of important 16 conversations regarding their well-being and future.”
Berg contends her bill has many similarities to Dye’s proposal.
“I love working with Mary and she’s great,” said Berg in an interview with The Center Square. “I think that there’s a lot of things with this bill that we share in common.
“It’s so unfortunate that the bill and its mission is so big,” she said. “I do believe we do have to have trans-men at the table when we’re talking about boys and men. I think inclusivity and diversity is not a bad thing and that’s what makes us strong, that’s what makes our economy strong, and makes our state strong and out country strong.
“This bill is focusing on the needs of boys and men,” Berg said. “We absolutely have a crisis and when you talk about that, you have to be as inclusive as possible and listening to boys and men who don’t feel included in workforce wise or education wise, we’re trying to include them. I wish we could agree, but I think we will have to disagree with Rep. Mary Dye on that point.”
Dye said she will continue to push for her bill.
“My goal is to set up a commission where we can look at the issues that are challenging the boys and men of our state,” said Dye, adding this has been her life’s work as a legislator.
Dye said the commission makeup in Berg’s bill is in her opinion, a huge problem.
“The commission shall be made up of a majority of the members who identify as male and that’s the problem,” she said. “We can’t identify as male. You’re either male or you’re not. It’s just the way nature made it. Nature and God. So, it could be a lot of women who want to be boys or something, I don’t know, and that’s identity politics that’s used as a political bludgeon and then it’s the commonsense people that are the bad guys.”
Berg’s bill says the governor shall consider nominations for membership based on “maintaining a balanced and diverse distribution of ethnic, geographic, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, and occupational representation where practicable. The majority of members shall self-identify as male to maintain sufficient representation of individuals with direct lived experience on the commission,”
“I could have worked with her in a bipartisan way,” Dye said. “I knew that I was losing control over the bill for a year, but it was emotional. I want to see families restored. I want to see happy marriages, strong marriages, and happy homes. I want men to know that they’re doing the right thing.”

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