Senator Lorraine Wojahn

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Sen. Wojahn: The Spokesman Review liked it.
They loved it. I had a long talk with the editor of
the Spokesman Review.
Ms. Kilgannon: Somebody understood it. The
paper I was thinking of was The Olympian; they
liked it, too. They described it: “The bill revises
the wording of marriage license applications to
say that people who get married don’t become
each other’s property and cannot be abused by
their partners. Senate Bill 5124, sponsored by
Senator Lorraine Wojahn of Tacoma, was
approved thirty-three to sixteen. Most of the
‘no’ votes were Republicans raising questions
about the measure’s prospects in the GOPdominated
House.” And it gave the exact
wording: “Neither you nor your spouse is the
property of the other,” the applications would be
amended to read. “The laws of this state affirm
your right to enter into marriage and at the same
time to live within the marriage free from
violence and abuse.” On what grounds were
people against this? They just thought it was…
Sen. Wojahn: …thought it was silly!
Ms. Kilgannon: Not important?
Sen. Wojahn: Not important and that it was
silly and yet it was brought up by the American
Medical Association Alliance – which is made
up of the wives of doctors – at a national level.
And they passed it on down. And the president
of the Pierce County Medical Society was on
the Commission Against Domestic Violence, on
which I served. There were twelve of us. And
there was a doctor on there, Dr. Law, and he
approved it and it passed the Pierce County
Medical Association. As we did the bill, I got
the approval of the Commission Against
Domestic Violence through the efforts of the
wife of one of the physicians who was on the
Commission. They came down and lobbied for
it. And the Washington State Medical lobbied,
but the House refused to listen to anybody.
Ms. Kilgannon: Those are pretty big guns.
Normally that works.
Sen. Wojahn: I accused the Washington State
Medical of not pushing it hard enough. Pierce
County was pushing it and the doctor, Dr. Law
– his son was a page of mine at one time, nice
people – he was president of the Pierce County
Medical Association. But they came to me with
the bill; it was not my idea. The request came
through the Commission on Domestic Violence,
along with the support of all of these other
people. That’s the one where the woman, who
was president of the Alliance – on the national
level – of the American Medical Association,
was from Roseburg, Oregon and she’s the one
who, when I was on the trip by ship to Turkey
and the Greek Isles, sat at my table.
Ms. Kilgannon: Small world!
Sen. Wojahn: Small world! I couldn’t believe
it. They didn’t get on the cruise the first day.
They had flown in to London and were going to
pick up the ship en route and so they came about
the third night that the ship was out. The people
at the table with whom we were sitting was the
sister of this doctor from Roseburg, Oregon. Her
husband was an American airline pilot and
Frances North, the former legislator, and I were
sitting at the same table with them. They said
that her brother and sister-in-law were going to
be sitting at our table but they hadn’t arrived
yet. And they told me he was a doctor, but they
didn’t say where he was from. So when they sat
down at the table and they introduced us all,
they introduced this doctor and they said “from
Roseburg, Oregon,” and I said, “Well, it’s good
to meet you. I’m Lorraine Wojahn, sponsor of
your bill.” It was just a riot! And she promised
to come up the next year and testify for it, but it
didn’t get that far.
Ms. Kilgannon: That is something! Now,
would you actually have gone over to the House
and tried to meet with members and lobby this
bill?
Sen. Wojahn: I went over and testified. Well,
it never got a hearing. I called people. I called
this legislator whom I knew and who I thought
would be sympathetic and would support the
bill.
A school teacher, Kathy Lambert. I thought
she would understand, but she didn’t. She never
bad-mouthed it, but she refused to help. I’ll
never forget it. I talked to my own District