Washington state Sen. Jamie Pedersen (D-43) is a seasoned politician who, over the last two decades of his career, has been diligently securing legislative wins for the Queer community. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2006 and then joined the state Senate in 2013. Pedersen is also, above all, a family man who deeply loves his husband Eric and their four sons.

To start off the 2025 state legislative session, he sat down with the SGN to share his breadth of knowledge and experience as a Gay legislator.

Madison Jones: What was your coming out experience like?

Sen. Jamie Pedersen: The first person I came out to was in 1986, to my high school girlfriend. In response, she ended up writing down some Bible verses to give me (laughs). Her mother ended up finding out about it too, and in response, she told her [daughter] not to continue dating me, because she might "get AIDS." That was just how things were in Puyallup back then.

I came out to my parents eight years later, while I was dating this guy in law school. They had a hard time at first but never rejected me for it. They were just worried about how it would affect me and my future.

MJ: During your years in office since 2006, have you encountered any challenges as a Gay man in the Washington state legislature? Were other members welcoming at first?

JP: I have never had any issues with anyone. To the contrary, everyone has been welcoming, both Democrat and Republican, even if they don't agree with the bills I am working on.

I really am grateful to be standing on the shoulders of those who came before, like Rep. Murray and Rep. Cal Anderson. I never got the chance to meet Cal. Unfortunately, he passed away a month before I moved back to Seattle in 1995. But Rep. Murray used to tell me the stories of how people wouldn't acknowledge or look at them. It was a big cultural change between then and 2006, when I was first elected to the House of Representatives.

Though there will always be people who still assume I am heterosexual by default. There was this one instance at a Civil Legal Oversight Committee meeting in the Washington Supreme Court Temple of Justice in October 2009. On that day, my husband Eric and I had just learned our surrogate was pregnant with triplets. I had to enter late and leave early because of this, letting the meeting chair, Judge Lesley Allan, know beforehand. In the meeting, she made an announcement in front of the whole courtroom, saying: "I am so excited to announce that Rep. Pedersen and his wife are expecting triplets!" And the whole room audibly gasped at her in shock.

But there was a happy ending to it all. Once I left the meeting, she came running out after me on the front steps of the Supreme Court to apologize profusely. She is a quilter and got her friends in her quilting group together to make some for our newborn boys.

MJ: How did you end up meeting your husband, Eric? Has it been a struggle raising four sons while also being a legislator?

JP: I don't even know if it exists anymore, but we met online in the summer of 2002 on a dating website called Gaydar.co.uk. This friend of mine at my church met his new boyfriend using it, so I signed up. A month or so later, I came across Eric. We ended up having lots of friends in common, which wasn't surprising.

Our first date was at the Victrola in Capitol Hill, and we got engaged the following year at our church. Then in 2015 we got married for the second time with an official license.

With the kids, I have the same kinds of struggles as any other legislator. I am always balancing a lot of stuff. I am very fortunate Eric took 15 years off his career to be a stay-at-home dad. He was a principal in the Bellevue School District before that, so he fortunately knows a thing or two about discipline and raising children.

MJ: Which piece of legislation are you most proud of so far? Would it be the Marriage Equality Act?

JP: Perhaps you could make the argument for that, but I am also very proud of my accomplishments on the Uniform Law Commission committee. The ULC creates state laws that harmonize with others across different states.

There is one called the Uniform Parentage Act from the 1950s that stipulates parental rights, and defines parenthood as between two cisgender, heterosexual parents having biological children. We rewrote it in 2015—16 because there are, in fact, a lot of different paths to becoming a parent: de facto parents, parents through intent (surrogacy), and so on.

The reason I ended up finding out about all this is because of our sons. Eric and I ended up having to use surrogacy in California, because it was considered a Class C felony in Washington state at the time. It was very difficult being 3,000 miles away from San Diego, where our surrogate was living. Since 2018, LGBT couples in Washington state can now have surrogacy legally. Because this also falls under the Uniform Law Commission, these updates have since been enacted in nine other states. Massachusetts is the most recent one I got to be a part of this summer.

I am particularly proud of this, because are families like mine now legally recognized [not only] in Washington state but in nine other states across the country.

MJ: What is your relationship with outgoing US Ambassador Roger Nyhus? Is it true you and your family went to visit him in Barbados this summer during Hurricane Beryl?

JP: Yes, he is a very close friend and the godfather to all our kids. In normal times, I will talk to him everyday. He only lives five blocks north of us too. In June and July of this summer, the family and I went to go visit him at his official post in Barbados. When we were supposed to go on to our next island, we unfortunately got caught up in the middle of Hurricane Beryl. We ended up having to extend our stay with Roger and fly back home after the storm subsided, but he was very good about it.

MJ: Project 2025 clearly promotes "traditional nuclear families." What do you think of this? How will you help to keep Washington state a safe place for Queer love and families?

JP: We have been working independently of the federal government in Washington state for many years to ensure that LGBT people stay protected in all avenues of life. This is not hitting us for the first time. Trump was already president in 2017—21, and we have been busy fighting off bad things ever since.

What has changed this time is we have hit a difficult budget situation. Republicans in Washington, DC will try to use the threat of revoking funds to try and coerce us. For example: Will they try to cut funding for our public schools if we don't agree to ban Trans kids participating in sports? The answer to this is obvious but also hard. The filibuster is the biggest thing Democrats have got going for us to prevent these things from leaving the Senate floor.

We are absolutely zeroed in to see what happens.