HLAA NYS President Steve Wolfert and Advocacy Committee Chair Jerry Bergman met on Friday, March 6, with Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. The Majority Leader encouraged us to reach out to Sen. Patricia Fahy of Albany, Sen. Cordelle Cleare of Manhattan and Sen. Gustavo Rivera of the Bronx in our quest for a lead sponsor of the legislation.
Sen. Fahy chairs the Committee on Disabilities. Sen. Cleare chairs the Committee on Aging, and Sen. Rivera chairs the Committee on Health. Lead sponsorship by the three together would be awesome and greatly help to gain passage of an OCAP law.
Phone calls and emails to the three senators are encouraged. Simply ask them to become lead sponsors and introduce a 2026 bill to replace S.2269, sponsored by former Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal last year.
Virginia to Become 4th State Requiring Open Movie Captions
Just days ago Virginia lawmakers moved to require cinemas statewide to schedule showtimes of movies with open captions. Virginia’s bill — calling for captioned screenings of movies shown at least seven times per week — now awaits signing into law by Gov. Abigail Spanberger.
Three states — Hawaii, Maryland and Washington — plus the District of Columbia and New York City, already have OCAP laws in effect. And OCAP bills are currently before legislatures in Colorado, Michigan and West Virginia.