On January 18, 1990, State Senator Jim West of Spokane proposes an AIDS education measure that includes a provision making all sexual contact illegal for anybody unmarried under 18. West says he looks at it not as a law to be enforced, but as a convenient "excuse" for abstaining teens to "use if they don't want to do it" (Matassa). It is quickly branded the "No-Sex-For-Teens Bill" on the front page of The Seattle Times (King, Rhodes, Tizon). It is widely derided as criminalizing "a perfectly normal human interaction" (Matassa). The Seattle Times runs a mocking editorial headlined, "Get a Life, Sen. West! -- Lightweight Thinking on Heavy Petting" ("Get A Life..."). A political columnist for The Spokesman-Review will note one obvious problem with the law. "Aren't they going to have to round up all the unwed pregnant teenagers and throw them in jail? Won't their delicate condition be automatic proof that they've broken the teen sex law?" (Camden, "Just Say (No Soap)").
The Story That Refuses to Die
West first attempted to defend the provision, saying he was serious and intended to push it as far as he could because "there are a lot of kids out there that want a reason to say no" (Steele, "West's Public Policy"). But before long he backed away from the bill and said a teen abstinence group called Teen-Aid had written the provision and he had not even read all of it. A few weeks later, West killed the bill in his own committee when he chose not to call for a timely vote on it.
Yet West later complained that it was "the story that refuses to die" ("Maturing West Still Does the Unexpected"). It resurfaced throughout his career, in publications both humorous -- the National Lampoon -- and serious -- The New York Times. A Democratic lawyer wrote a letter to West suggesting that the law ought to go further: "Why not make it illegal for legislators to have sex with each other?" (Egan).
Jim West and Sex
Sex was a common thread in a number of bills that West had backed in his 21-year state legislative career. Early in 1984, he introduced a bill to toughen child pornography laws, making possession of pictures of children for pornographic purposes a felony. The bill never got a hearing. Then in January 1986, West co-sponsored a bill, along with 13 other Republicans, which would have barred homosexuals from working in schools, day care centers, and some state agencies (House Bill No. 1969). The bill defined same-gender sex as "deviant sexual behavior," along with bestiality, and declared that a person with an "orientation towards deviant sexual behavior has no right to be free from discrimination" (House Bill No. 1969). The bill, which went nowhere, was a reaction to Governor Booth Gardner's (1936-2013) executive order banning discrimination in state hiring based on sexual orientation.
In the 1998 legislative session, West voted along with all other Senate Republicans to ban gay marriage. When Democratic Governor Gary Locke (b. 1950) promptly vetoed the anti-gay-marriage bill, West voted again to override the veto. Washington became the 27th state to enact such a ban. The law also specified that Washington would not recognize same-gender marriages from other states.
In March 1995, West took on Democratic governor Mike Lowry (1939-2017) when Lowry was facing allegations of sexual harassment of a female former press aide. A report concluded that Lowry had made some employees uncomfortable, but his behavior did not meet the legal definition of sexual harassment. West, undeterred, fired off a letter calling for impeachment proceedings against him.
His fellow legislators were unenthusiastic about the impeachment idea, and West was dressed down by his own Republican caucus for issuing the letter on his own. West scoffed at the party leadership, saying, "The leadership of the House aren't red meat eaters" ("West Seeks Lowry's Impeachment").
"I'm not a feminist or any kind of fighter for women's rights, but what he did was wrong and can't go without response," said West. "The governor should not be held to any lower standard than anyone else in our society. Governors cannot and should not flout the law. If only half the allegations are indeed truth and this were anyone but the governor, there would be no questions asked; he would be summarily fired" ("West Seeks Lowry's Impeachment").
His Own Sex Scandal
This stand would come back to haunt West in 2005 when he was embroiled in a sex scandal of his own while mayor of Spokane. West was accused of trolling for gay sex on the Internet and offering city internships to young men in exchange for sex. West's past stances on gay marriage, gay sex, and teen sex -- as well as his unforgiving attitude toward Lowry -- appeared to be in conflict with his private life.
West refused to resign, but later in 2005 Spokane voters recalled him. In 2006 he died of cancer.
