Edmonds resident Lois Fink was in Olympia May 11 to watch Gov. Chris Gregoire sign a bill she helped to launch.
The “restroom access law” — House Bill 1138 — allows people with certain medical conditions to use employee-only restrooms in most retail locations. The bill passed the House in early March and passed the Senate just days before the Legislature adjourned session on April 26.
It was one year ago in January, Fink said, that she e-mailed Rep. Marko Liias, D-Mukilteo, about a condition and a problem she was too familiar with to ignore any longer. She told Liias about having Crohn’s disease and how it and other medical conditions can cause a sudden and painful need to use the restroom. She also told him about the embarrassment that comes with having an accident after being denied access to a non-public restroom in a store.
Fink said she was surprised when Liias listened.
“I was pretty shocked he called me back,” she said. “I remember saying to him that I didn’t think anyone would read this (e-mail) let along call me back. … I remember saying, ‘this is better than getting a call from Oprah Winfrey’ and he just laughed.”
Fink thought about advocating for a restroom access bill in Washington after she met Ally Bain, a teenager from Chicago, who worked to pass a similar law called Ally’s Law, in Illinois.
“Ally and her mom were my inspiration for getting this done here,” Fink said. “I know how it can feel to have an accident in a very public place. It’s humiliating. The main thing was to get the bill passed.”
Fink testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee in February and in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in March. The experience of watching a bill from start to finish was educational, Fink said. Liias expressed his gratitude for her work in late April.
“I’m grateful to Lois for bringing the issue to my attention, because it’s the kind of thing that we should have been doing in Washington for a long time,” Liias said in a release.
Fink isn’t done raising awareness of Crohn’s disease. She will support bicyclists in the Get Your Guts in Gear bicycle ride for the fourth time this August. Participants will leave Edmonds on Aug. 7 and ride through Whidbey Island and the Skagit Valley, looping back to Edmonds three days and 210 miles later.
“One person really can make a difference,” she said.
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