#teen lobbying day

Most elected officials probably get excited when actual teenagers come to visit their offices. For all we hear about how young people don’t get involved in civics it must be nice to have young people take an interest in legislative work.

Well, unless you’re Washington State Rep. Mary Dye. She’s apparently interested in turning young people (or perhaps just young women?) off from the  process of governing entirely. 

The Seattle Times has details:

After the students — part of a Pullman-area teen council chapter of Planned Parenthood visiting their lawmakers — advocated for bills that propose to expand insurance coverage for birth control, Dye did some advocating of her own.

Dye asked if the students were virgins and suggested one was not, according to the students and Rachel Todd, a Planned Parenthood worker accompanying the kids.

“After she made the statement about virginity, all of my teens looked at me,” said Todd, an education specialist for Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho. “And I said, ‘You don’t have to answer that. You don’t have to answer that.’”

Perhaps instead of griping about young people not being involved we should blame elected officials like Mary Dye for their apathy instead.