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Advancing LGBTQ+ equality on agenda of House health panel
The House of the Representatives’ Committee on Health and Welfare chaired by Rep. Christina Sablan (D-Saipan) is now organized and will hold its first public meeting this Friday.
Among the committee’s legislative agenda for 2021 is advancing LGBTQ+ equality and wellbeing in the CNMI. LGBTQ+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or sometimes questioning), and others. The plus represents other sexual identities.
Sablan said Rep. Leila Staffler (D-Saipan) is the committee’s vice chairwoman, and members are Reps. Sheila Babauta (D-Saipan), Donald Manglona (Ind-Rota), and Blas Jonathan Tenorio Attao (R-Saipan).
In her memorandum Monday to House Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan), Sablan said the purpose of this Friday’s meeting to be held at the House chamber at 9am is to discuss the committee’s priorities for calendar year 2021.
Other issues listed in the legislative agenda are monitoring the Commonwealth’s COVID-19 response, expanding access to health care in the Marianas, reforming the medical referral program, and raising revenue for health care system. Sablan said Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Esther Muña and her team have been invited to testify.
