Democratic Lieutenant Governor candidate Susan Bysiewicz came to Central Connecticut last Thursday for a personal, quiet conversation with a small group of student leaders, primarily female, about what they wanted to see from the next state legislature.

Lindsay Farrell, president of the Connecticut Working Families Party, and Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Connecticut Sarah Croucher accompanied Bysiewicz. Farrell brought her party’s perspective on middle-class working families and Croucher discussed access for quality reproductive care for women.

“On issues of women’s rights, there couldn’t be more different sides to this,” Bysiewicz said on her and opponent Republican Joe Markley’s views.

Before turning the talk to the students in attendance, Bysiewicz first asked Farrell and Croucher to speak. Croucher brought up issues with Connecticut’s reproductive freedom, touching particularly upon “crisis pregnancy centers,” better known as fake abortion clinics, which use deception to disguise themselves as abortion clinics but are actually anti-abortion.

“There are many states where Roe v. Wade is still standing, but where one abortion clinic is hanging by a thread,” Croucher stated, citing Missouri as an example, which is on the brink of having its one clinic close. Croucher made it clear that crisis pregnancy centers are not a substitute to fill the gap.

“We want to make sure that people who actually want healthcare get to the right place,” she said.

Farrell then chimed in, talking about how the Working Families Party is slowly replacing the Republican Party as the Democratic Party’s opposition, as it has already in Hartford where the city council is six Democrats and three Working Families Party members.

“Our folks are pulling the Democrats to the left,” Farrell said.

The conversation then maneuvered to the students. Amanda King, a Student Government Association senator and CCSU’s new Student Advisory Committee representative, asked the first question, drawing attention to LGBT issues, wanting to know Bysiewicz’s stance on Connecticut’s anti-discrimination laws.

“Once gay marriage was legalized, everyone said, ‘Okay, the fight is over!’ But it isn’t. I’m really interested in seeing more anti-discrimination laws passed, especially to be applied to schools,” King told the trio.

Bysiewicz replied by bringing up the Family Institute’s, an organization that does not support gay marriage and LGBT protection, endorsement of Markley.

“They support candidates like my opponent who have been unfriendly to the LGBT community and to women’s rights generally. All of these issues are on the ballot because President [Donald] Trump has launched this assault on the LGBT community,” Bysiewicz said.

King was satisfied with Bysiewicz’s answer and said after that she was pleased overall with getting to speak with her, Croucher and Farrell.

“It was empowering to talk to a woman who has been in local politics for so long, and I hope to see more representation like that in this upcoming election,” King commented. “I appreciated the opportunity to directly advocate for issues in Connecticut that I believe in. I want to make sure the state government knows what policies citizens want to create and enforce.”

Armando Osario, president of PRIDE and a former SGA senator, piggy-backed off of King’s question, asking her own about businesses discriminating against LGBT persons.

“I know people who are getting married and they have to disclaim, ‘This is a gay wedding. Are you willing to provide your services?’ and a lot of people are saying no. It’s very disheartening and familiar,” Osario said.

Though Osario will be voting for Bysiewicz, she stated that the candidate’s answers had too much spin to her liking.

“I think the two women that were with [Bysiewicz] spoke better about the work that they’ve done and their goals while [Bysiewicz] mainly focused on what her opponent didn’t support,” Osario stated.

“I will [vote for Bysiewicz], but I will be voting under the Working Families Party. I really liked what I think Farrell said about what the Working Families Party stands for so I’m going to look into it more,” she went on.