203-0!

On May 6, 2025, HB355 was presented on the House of Representatives floor for a vote. We were optimistic, but politics can be unpredictable. There's always a chance someone might see this as an opportunity to gain attention and create a scene with your bill.

Grace and I settled into our seats high up in the nosebleed section, also known as the gallery. Fun fact: security prohibits the use of cell phones. No talking, texting, or taking pictures. If you even glance at your phone, they will threaten to remove you from the area. So when I snapped the picture to the right, Grace was shocked to realize her father was breaking the rules. Yes, I am a bad influence. Make note of the look on Grace's face, which was accompanied by her proudly saying, "I am so telling Mom!"

Anyway, after sitting through a dozen other votes on a variety of painfully boring topics, HB355 came up. Rep Chris Pielli and Rep Joe D'Orsie both spoke about the bill and shared their feelings on the importance of it. Both of them called Grace out for her courage in coming forward. Joe also mentioned me and my "perseverance" in getting the bill this far which was a nice way of saying what a pain in the ass I was. But I am ok with that. I was immensly proud of getting it to that point and was happy to call out people who weren't doing their jobs.

The speaker then asked if anyone wanted to say anything else and we held our breath, waiting for some asshat to go up to the microphone and speak in opposition but no one spoke against it. So it was voting time. And well, it was pretty damn cool. Check out the short video below.

The vote passed 203-0! And when it was over, all of the lawmakers stood and turned to us and applauded. Not sure I have the words to describe that moment but "surreal" might be a good one to use. "Overwhelmed" might be another good one.

The work isn't over, I still need to get it in front of the Senate Judiciary but quite honestly, I am pretty optimistic about it. This is really hard work but the payoff is coming. My hope is that at least one person will not have to see the predator that assaulted their child walk out of the courtroom as a free person. Just knowing that this all saved one family from that indignity will be enough. Sadly, I know that it will be many, many families that will be impacted by this work.

And they will never know our names and that is ok. They will have a long, hard road of healing ahead of them but hopefully getting to see the monster that hurt their family in cuffs and an orange jumpsuit will help bring a small amount of closure. Who knows, maybe one day they'll be inspired to improve parts of the system, and that would be truly amazing.