Sarah Toce
By: Gretchen Smail
This story is published in partnership with the Queer News Network, a collaboration among 11 LGBTQ+ newsrooms to cover down ballot elections across 10 states. Read more about Queer News Network here.
One person is having an outsized influence on Washington state politics this November: hedge fund executive Brian Heywood.
Heywood, who helped launch the political action committee Let’s Go Washington alongside Republican party state chair Jim Walsh, moved from California to Washington in 2010.
The goal of the PAC? To put initiatives on the ballot.
Heywood said he wants to “fix what’s broken,” and that these initiatives are meant to lower the cost of living and give consumers more options when it comes to things like gas prices and health care.
According to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission, Heywood has spent over $7 million to fund seven initiatives,three of which passed in March, with four more on this year’s ballots.
Politicians who have not endorsed the initiatives are labeled on Let’s Go Washington’s website as those who “don’t stand with the people of Washington” and are advocating for “more taxes on those who can least afford it.”
But critics say that this couldn’t be further from the truth. They said he is using his monetary weight to influence local politics, mislead the public and pass a veiled anti-LGBTQ+ bill that has resulted in a local lawsuit.
Heywood is investing “his own funds to roll back several years of progressive legislation,” said Cinthia Illan-Vazquez, the executive director of Washington Bus, an organization centered on youth civic engagement. “These initiatives are part of a coordinated effort to reshape Washington’s political landscape.”
Illan-Vazquez said that now Heywood and Walsh are taking advantage of the initiative process and using “intentionally misleading messaging to influence voter decisions.”
Initiatives Take Aim at Taxes
Many of Let’s Go Washington’s current initiatives deal with rolling back various taxes in the state, often to the benefit of corporations and the wealthy.
Initiative 2109, for example, aims to repeal the capital gains tax, which Heywood called a “backdoor income tax” that “kills jobs and punishes entrepreneurs and small businesses.”
But Illan-Vazquez said that 2109 is essentially an attempt at creating a “tax break to Washington’s wealthiest residents.”
According to the state Department of Revenue, the capital gains tax is a 7% tax on the sale or exchange of stocks and bonds worth more than $262,000. Last year, only 3,850 people had to file a capital gains return, which generated $433 million. That money went towards funding schools, early learning and childcare programs.
Other initiatives, like 2117, would reduce funding for public transportation, while 2124 would effectively bankrupt the state’s long-term care program, WA Cares, which supports low-income residents.
Heywood did not respond to requests for comment.
One Anti-LGBTQ+ Initiative Is In Litigation
While Heywood and Walsh continue to campaign for the four initiatives on the ballot, one of the three initiatives that passed in March is now in court: 2081, also known as the Parental Rights Bill.
Initiative 2081 states that parents have the right to inspect their children’s curriculum, textbooks, medical records and counseling records. It also requires that parents are notified of—and be allowed – to opt their child out of any assignment they feel might cause their child to question their gender identity, sexual orientation or their family’s religious or political beliefs.
The bill was set to go into effect in June, but in May the ACLU of Washington, Legal Voice and QLaw filed a lawsuit on behalf of ten plaintiffs to stop its implementation.
“We filed the lawsuit after hearing a lot of concerns from organizations that work with queer and trans youth about the impact the initiative might have on existing privacy protections for young people,” explained Adrien Leavitt, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Washington.
Across the U.S., conservatives have passed “parental rights” bills that claim to keep students “safe,” but that has proven to be cloaked language to eliminate any curriculum that mentions gender or sexuality, and has led to false claims that school teachers are pedophiles.
During the public hearing on 2081, some parents who supported the initiative referenced the danger of “groomers” and “predators” in schools, which are often-used anti-LGBTQ+ conservative talking points. Heywood also made similar comments in a February post on his X account.
Julia Marks, an attorney for Legal Voice, said 2081’s language was too broad and vague, and that it suggested that schools override existing privacy laws in favor of a parent’s right to know everything.
Under Washington law, there are specific situations in which minors can access services like reproductive health care or mental health counseling without their parent’s permission.
Marks noted that the initiative might deter LGBTQ+ students from seeking out a counselor whom they can safely talk to about gender and mental health. “Where once a student could have done that confidentiality, now the district can say, ‘Oh, we’re required to tell your parents,’” she said. “For those students who aren’t safe going to their parents about some of these really sensitive issues, 2081 is a really big deal.”
Leavitt said lacking access to health care or trusted adults to confide in has a direct impact on suicide rates, especially of trans youth.
According to a 2022 Trevor Project survey, 45% of LGBTQ+ youth in the U.S. seriously considered suicide in 2021. That number was significantly lower among youth who said they lived in supportive communities. But in the past few years, the uptick in anti-trans rhetoric and laws has led to an increase in harassment and hostility nationwide.
States like Florida, Arizona, Louisiana and Georgia have already passed parental rights laws, which critics often call “forced outing” bills. Marks said that the language of 2081 was actually nearly identical to a parental rights bill in Louisiana. Many of the other bills are similar to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, passed in 2022, which closely resembled Arizona’s “No Promo Homo” bill that was repealed in 2019.
UCLA released a study on the effects of Florida’s bill and found that over half of the LGBTQ+ families surveyed were considering leaving the state, and 21 percent became less out in their communities out of fear of harassment.
In Arizona, 62 percent of LGBTQ+ youth reported being verbally harassed in 2021, according to a GLSEN study, while in Louisiana, 21 percent of LGBTQ+ students reported being physically harassed.
And in Washington, 74 percent of students told GLSEN in 2019 that they regularly heard homophobic remarks. Only a quarter of them reported that they were taught about LGBTQ+ people and history in a positive light.
Marks said that’s why 2081’s language around allowing parents to opt their children out of learning topics like LGBTQ+ history and the history of racial oppression was concerning. Those are things that “young people need to learn about to be good members of our society, to be supportive of each other and be respectful to people of different backgrounds,” she said.
On June 21, a judge granted a partial preliminary injunction against portions of 2081. The judge will make a final determination on its constitutionality on January 24, 2025.
“We’re very concerned that people are taking actions that are super harmful to youth and framing it as something that’s good for parents rights and good for families,” said Marks. “It really ignores all the reasons that a youth might need support from someone who’s not a direct family member or a parent.”
Heywood is closely aligned with Republicans
Heywood celebrated on Twitter after the Senate passed three of the seven initiatives in March, agreeing with one commenter that there were more things that needed fixing in Washington and he was in it for the long haul.
To that end, Heywood has also donated to several Republican candidates. Many of them have spoken out against the curricula that 2081 was also looking to restrict.
According to OpenSecrets, Heywood has given money to Jaskaran Sarao, a landlord making his first foray into politics because he felt the Democratic leadership failed to help him evict a tenant. Sarao has described diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in schools as the “American caste system,” and he’s been featured on anti-LGBTQ+ group Family Policy Institute of Washington’s YouTube channel.
Heywood has also given money to current Spokane County Treasurer Michael Baumgartner, who’s running for U.S. Congress. Baumgartner wrote on his website that “political correctness and woke ideology have no place in our schools.” In June, he praised Heywood for the passage of 2081.
Heywood has also donated several times to Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who signed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law, as well as an anti-trans health care bill that a federal judge ruled in June as unconstitutional.
In total, Heywood has donated over $500,000 to the Republican party in Washington.
