Bonney Lake councilmember explains resolution against vaccine segregation

The Bonney Lake City Council voted in favor of a resolution to ban vaccine passports and related segregation in their town. Councilmember Angela Ishmael told KTTH’s Jason Rantz Show the resolution passed 7-0.

“I started to see a change with COVID that I’d never seen before and, really, I honestly didn’t think was possible,” Ishmel said. “I saw people living in fear and then treating other citizens as if they were a danger to them. I really started to see it when Gov. Inslee — his last requirements to have citizens check IDs and vaccine proof, and promoting guidelines that encourages vaccination segregation in our community.”

Rep. Walsh introduces bill prohibiting ‘vaccine passports’ in Washington

She said that as an inclusive society, all people, regardless of their vaccination status, deserve respect and dignity and should not be discriminated against.

Ishmel added that the resolution was a way for the city council to let their citizens and Gov. Inslee know that they won’t promote vaccine segregation. And she hopes other cities will see what Bonney Lake did and follow their lead.

“If we can build power in numbers and Gov. Inslee’s ears can hear us saying ‘We’re not OK with this, this is not who we are as Washingtonians, we respect all people equally, regardless of their vaccination status,'” Ishmel said.

The councilmember said vaccination status is private information that should remain private, and nobody at concerts and festivals should require it.

“We need to move on. We’ve never, in our history, had segregated people by medical status, at least not in my lifetime,” Ishmel said.

The governor’s office told KIRO Radio that the state will only be providing guidance for businesses, but vaccine proof will not be a mandate. The enforcement of any rules regarding vaccinations will be on the individual organizations or businesses. The option to allow unvaccinated people will remain, but venues that require vaccination would be able to have additional capacity and fewer spacing limitations.

Gov. Inslee says he is in full support of private companies and nonprofits that want to have vaccine requirements. He says more colleges and universities are likely to add them, and he expressed his support of those efforts as well.

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3 – 6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here.