2026 GSBA Legislative Priorities

By Gabriel Neuman, Director of Policy & Advocacy (he/him)

As we head into the 2026 legislative session, one thing is abundantly clear: Washington’s LGBTQ+ and allied business community is resilient, innovative, and deeply committed to building a state where economic opportunity, safety, and belonging are possible for everyone.

At GSBA, our legislative agenda is shaped directly by what we hear from you—our small businesses, rising entrepreneurs, corporate partners, and community leaders. You’ve told us about the pressures you’re facing: rising costs, workforce challenges, increased public safety concerns, and renewed attacks on LGBTQ+ people in schools and public life. Our 2026 priorities are designed to respond to those realities and to protect the progress we’ve made together.

Below is an overview of GSBA’s 2026 legislative priorities, including the policies we support (✅) and the harmful measures we’re committed to opposing (🔴).

Economic Preservation & Sustainability

Businesses are the reflection of the vibrancy and identity of their community. Most LGBTQ-owned businesses are small, local ventures with few employees. It’s essential that we create an environment in which these businesses are insulated against economic hardship and supported in their growth. Current economic factors such as increased local costs of rent, labor, and insurance, as well as national pressures, stress the importance of this work. Our state’s biggest employers, major corporations, and industries must also be supported.

GSBA supports policies that:

• ✅ Equip our state with robust tourism infrastructure and support
• ✅ Promote a smart regulatory scheme that eases burdens on businesses, particularly in relation to taxation, zoning, labor policy, and permitting requirements
• ✅ Advocate fair and equitable tax reform that does no harm to small businesses
• ✅ Advance programs that reduce barriers and promote access to capital, and provide technical assistance to support the growth of new businesses
• ✅ Aim to uplift integral regional industries such as restaurants, arts, hospitality, trade industries, and manufacturing
• ✅ Increase avenues for historically marginalized communities to open businesses, including but not limited to providing economic support for startup costs, increasing personal credit protections, and grant efforts targeted at small and micro-business support

Workforce Development

Our members have spoken—one of the most needed areas of support is in workforce development. A happy, well-trained workforce is key to our state’s economic success and future development. We support policies that increase access to training and worker development opportunities, and that work toward fostering a diverse, supportive industry environment.

• ✅ Help LGBTQ+ business enterprises (LGBTBE)s gain certification, inclusion, and access to Washington State supplier diversity opportunities
• ✅ Promote worker training and education programs that address gaps in our state’s workforce needs and provide a range of future career opportunities
• ✅ Expand pre-apprenticeship programs and ensure they are designed to support workers who are underrepresented in apprenticeship programs through outreach, education, and legislative action
• ✅ Invest in industry training programs to ensure LGBTQ+ inclusion competency at the employer and trainer level
• ✅ Support the structures that promote a healthy workforce, including child care, statewide

Public Safety

Community safety continues to be a top priority for Washingtonians. The LGBTQ+ community is uniquely affected by their region’s safety climate as anti-LGBTQ+ violence continues to escalate. Moreover, increased break-ins, gun violence, vandalism, and more threaten business sustainability. We support solutions that provide immediate support for those impacted by public safety crises, as well as systemic reform that increases access to rehabilitative and housing services.

GSBA approaches public safety through a multifaceted lens by supporting evidence-based policies that:

• ✅ Help local businesses deal with property crime, vandalism, etc. by providing adequate resources to address non-violent calls with the urgency our community needs
• ✅ Spread awareness of Washington’s Hate and Bias Incidents Hotline in efforts to support LGBTQ+ community members impacted by bias incidents, and increase reporting statewide
• ✅ Support policies that implement and fund treatment options for behavioral health and substance use disorder, housing access, and crisis response programs
• ✅ Reduce instances of violent gun crime
• ✅ Build non-police response units to help connect those in crisis with the services and support they need
• ✅ Promote non-punitive deferral over incarceration for non-violent offenders
• ✅ Support equitable access to justice for all

Education

LGBTQ+ students are facing an unprecedented number of attacks on their right to privacy and bodily autonomy. GSBA believes in cultivating the future leaders of our LGBTQ+ community by building a school system that is inclusive for all and opposes measures that aim to dismantle this commitment. Moreover, we aspire to set up our next generation for success by improving access to higher education, both at colleges and universities and through workforce development programming.

At the end of 2025, conservative group Let’s Go Washington launched a campaign to eliminate much of the progress Washington has made to support gender-diverse students in public K–12 schools. They will introduce two initiatives to the 2026 Legislature. One would require schools to disclose confidential information (such as private conversations about gender identity or abuse and neglect happening at home) to parents, eliminate protections for LGBTQ+ students and teachers, and unwind much of Washington’s non-discrimination policy for public schools. The second would ban transgender athletes from gender-appropriate sporting leagues and enforce the policy with mandatory medical examinations. GSBA has joined the Washington Families for Freedom campaign and will work to educate state lawmakers on the issues and rally the community to defeat these initiatives at the ballot box in November 2026.

In addition to local ballot measures, Washington’s educational supports for the LGBTQ+ community are also threatened by a federal government that seeks to eliminate any presence of “gender ideology” or LGBTQ+ support in public schools.

GSBA strongly opposes the following harmful efforts:

• 🔴 Requiring schools to disclose confidential conversations about gender identity, abuse, or neglect to parents, putting students at risk
• 🔴 Eliminating protections for LGBTQ+ students and teachers in public schools
• 🔴 Banning transgender athletes from gender-appropriate sports leagues and enforcing these bans through mandatory medical examinations
• 🔴 Federal and state efforts to remove LGBTQ+ support, curriculum, and resources from public schools

Considering these factors, GSBA advocates and supports the following principles:

• ✅ Protect the privacy rights of students and teachers in Washington’s K–12 schools
• ✅ Ensure students retain access to gender-affirming and reproductive health care services at school
• ✅ Support the implementation of LGBTQ+-informed student mental health support and counseling services
• ✅ Mandate LGBTQ+ comprehensive sex education, including promoting LGBTQ+ therapy and support services in schools
• ✅ Incorporate LGBTQ+ history and identity into classroom curriculums statewide to promote historical understanding and inclusion of our community
• ✅ Expand access to early learning and childcare services for low- and middle-income workers
• ✅ Finance access to higher education for LGBTQ+ students
• ✅ Promote accountability for school boards statewide to ensure LGBTQ+ protections are met

Community Infrastructure

As the cost of doing business continues to rise, small businesses and workers are facing increasing difficulties in accessing the infrastructure they need to serve their communities. Our members have expressed a need for more affordable commercial rent; affordable housing options close to the workplace; increased transportation options for commuters; and expanded childcare support. GSBA supports policies that build an environment in which business thrives.

• ✅ Ensure Washington communities are equipped with the knowledge and support needed to take advantage of opportunities presented by the upcoming 2026 World Cup
• ✅ Update permitting and zoning policies, land use regulations, and development standards to increase the construction of affordable and workforce housing, especially in and near transit and commercial areas
• ✅ Provide increased avenues for small businesses to access commercial spaces
• ✅ Ensure our statewide transportation infrastructure retains funding in an equitable way
• ✅ Support communities in rezoning efforts to expand retail density and affordable commercial spaces
• ✅ Continue to invest in low-income housing, including permanent supportive and low-income housing, and preserving current housing that is affordable today
• ✅ Support the expansion of shelter care and emergency housing for people with the greatest amount of need, including expanding protection for transgender residents
• ✅ Support community-centered housing options such as LGBTQ+-specific housing initiatives

Health Care

A healthy economy requires a healthy workforce. GSBA understands the many nuances that come into play with LGBTQ+ health care, particularly around access to HIV/AIDS medication, gender-expansive services, and reproductive care. While federal support of LGBTQ+-affirming healthcare is in jeopardy, it is important that our state legislature continues to lead in support of state-based health care policy. We support policies that expand access to these services for the LGBTQ+ community, as well as health care more broadly.

• ✅ Convene LGBTQ+ health care practitioners, policy analysts, and advocates to address systemic barriers to accessing gender-affirming care
• ✅ Advise and support state departments and lawmakers in responding to potential federal cuts to Washington’s health care budget
• ✅ Advocate that our state’s health care practitioners receive education in LGBTQ+ community needs
• ✅ Expand and ease access to gender-affirming care

Privacy Protections & Technology

Technological advancements and targeted surveillance by the federal government have led to increased privacy concerns for the LGBTQ+ community. It is imperative for lawmakers and industry to collaborate to ensure new technological advancements, such as artificial intelligence, can be accessed equitably and used in service of society. As national actors seek to disenfranchise, and in some cases criminalize aspects of LGBTQ+ life, stakeholders must also work to shield the data of Washington’s LGBTQ+, and other marginalized communities. GSBA closely monitors the landscape of data privacy and advocates for the following principles:

• ✅ Ensure Washingtonians’ personal data is shielded from the federal government and other states or organizations with nefarious goals
• ✅ Support the implementation of non-biased models in AI or algorithmic technology
• ✅ Preserve intellectual property and creative works
• ✅ Utilize AI and technology to support small businesses

The 2026 session will ask us to be bold, focused, and united. GSBA will continue working with lawmakers, agencies, coalitions, businesses, and community partners to ensure that LGBTQ+ voices—and especially the voices of small business owners—remain central to Washington’s future.