Minnie Gonzalez (born August 4, 1950) is an American politician who has been a member of the

Connecticut House of Representatives The Connecticut State House of Representatives is the lower house in the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The house is composed of 151 members representing an ...

since 1997, serving the 3rd district in

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

. She is the Deputy Majority Leader since 2017.

Personal life

Gonzalez was born in

Adjuntas Adjuntas (, ) is a small mountainside town and municipality in Puerto Rico located central midwestern portion of the island on the Cordillera Central, north of Yauco, Guayanilla, and Peñuelas; southeast of Utuado; east of Lares and Yauco; an ...

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

into a family of seven siblings. She graduated from Adjuntas High School. In 1981 Gonzalez migrated to the United States, where she worked as a Special Deputy Sheriff at the West Hartford Superior Court in Connecticut and as an Assistant Registrar of Voters. She is married to Ramon L. Arroyo, and she has two sons and one daughter.

Political career

In 1986, Gonzalez was elected to the Hartford Town Committee. Ten years later she was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives for the 3rd district, which is composed of the Parkville, Frog Hollow and Behind the Rocks neighborhoods in

. She served as the Assistant Majority Leader from 2003 to 2004, as Assistant Majority Whip from 2005 to 2006, as Deputy Majority Whip-at-Large from 2007 to 2014, as Chief Majority Whip from 2015 to 2016 and as Deputy Majority Leader since 2017. Gonzales serves on the Appropriations, Housing and the Public Safety and Security Committees.Connecticut House Democrats
State Representative Minnie Gonzalez
/ref> She ran for mayor of Hartford in 2007.

Political views and accomplishments

Education

Gonzalez wants to invest more in technical high schools, and to established free

community college A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior sec ...

for Connecticut residents.State Representative Minnie González, w2.housedems.ct.gov/Gonzalez/pubs/Gonzalez_Update18.pdf Legislative Update 2018.

Family court reform

Gonzalez is an advocate for

family court Family courts were originally created to be a Court of Equity convened to decide matters and make orders in relation to family law, including custody of children, and could disregard certain legal requirements as long as the petitioner/plaintif ...

reform. She has sponsored legislation to create a rebuttable legal presumption that

shared parenting Shared parenting, shared residence, joint residence, shared custody, joint physical custody, equal parenting time (EPT) is a child custody arrangement after divorce or separation, in which both parents share the responsibility of raising their ...

is in the

best interest Best interests or best interests of the child is a child rights principle, which derives from Article 3 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which says that “in all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private ...

of children with divorced parents, with exceptions for

child abuse Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical, sexual, and/or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child or children, especially by a parent or a caregiver. Child abuse may include any act or failure to a ...

and

neglect In the context of caregiving, neglect is a form of abuse where the perpetrator, who is responsible for caring for someone who is unable to care for themselves, fails to do so. It can be a result of carelessness, indifference, or unwillingness and ...

. She has also sponsored legislation concerning

parental alienation Parental alienation is a theorized process through which a child becomes estranged from one parent as the result of the psychological manipulation of another parent. The child's estrangement may manifest itself as fear, disrespect or hostility tow ...

, to define it as a form of child abuse and to help children reconnected with their alienated mother or father. In 2014, Gonzalez worked to enact a law to limit the use of

guardian ad litem A legal guardian is a person who has been appointed by a court or otherwise has the legal authority (and the corresponding duty) to make decisions relevant to the personal and property interests of another person who is deemed incompetent, call ...

s. In 2019, she sponsored a bill to limit their use outside of severe cases identified by the Department of Children and Families. Together with republican Prasad Srinivasan and democrat

Ed Gomes Edwin A. Gomes (February 25, 1936 – December 22, 2020) was an American politician, a Democratic member of the Connecticut State Senate, representing District 23, which includes Bridgeport. He was elected to the chamber in a special election on ...

, Gonzalez was one of only three members of the Judiciary Committee voting against the 2018 reconfirmation of the controversial family court judge Jane B. Emons, who was not reconfirmed despite the positive committee vote. In 2019, she organized a public hearing on parental alienation and family court reform.

Health

When governor

Dannel Malloy Dannel Patrick Malloy (; born July 21, 1955) is an American politician, who served as the 88th governor of Connecticut from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he chaired the Democratic Governors Association from 2016 to 2017. On July ...

proposed to cut

Medicaid Medicaid in the United States is a federal and state program that helps with healthcare costs for some people with limited income and resources. Medicaid also offers benefits not normally covered by Medicare, including nursing home care and pers ...

for single people in 2012, Gonzalez objected, asking: ''We want to fix our budget on the backs of poor people?''.

Housing

Together with representative

Jason Rojas Jason Rojas (born 1976) is an American politician who is a five term Democratic member of the Connecticut House of Representatives, serving since 2008. He represents parts of East Hartford and Manchester, composing Connecticut's 9th assembly dis ...

, Gonzalez sponsored a 2015 housing bill that would have required at least 75 percent of all new

affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on affo ...

projects to be built in affluent neighborhoods, in order to reverse the pattern of only building federally subsidized low-income housing in the poorest neighborhoods. Despite attention from the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

, the bill died without receiving a vote.

Law enforcement

Gonzalez has supported the use of police body cameras, to protect both police officers and citizens by providing objective truths about police engagements. In a very unusual success, Gonzalez was a lead legislator preventing the 2018 re-appointment of judge Jane B. Emons, who had originally been appointed by governor

Jodi Rell Mary Carolyn "Jodi" Rell (née Reavis; born June 16, 1946) is an American former Republican politician and the 87th governor of Connecticut from 2004 until 2011. Rell also served as the state's 105th lieutenant governor of Connecticut. Rell was C ...

and proposed for reappointment by governor

Minimum wage

Representative Gonzalez supports an increase of the

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...

to $15 an hour. In 2019, she sponsored legislation that would increase the minimum wage from $10.10 to $11 in 2019 and then by another dollar each year until it reaches $15 in 2023.

Marijuana

In 2019 Gonzalez has sponsored legislation to permit the sale and taxation of

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

to adults over the age of 21, with some of the new tax proceeds earmarked to curb the

opioids Opioids are substances that act on opioid receptors to produce morphine-like effects. Medically they are primarily used for pain relief, including anesthesia. Other medical uses include suppression of diarrhea, replacement therapy for opioid use ...

epidemic.Connecticut General Assembly
Connecticut House Bill 5595
2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalez, Minnie 1950 births Living people Democratic Party members of the Connecticut House of Representatives Politicians from Hartford, Connecticut Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in Connecticut Hispanic and Latino American women in politics American politicians of Puerto Rican descent People from Adjuntas, Puerto Rico 21st-century American politicians Women state legislators in Connecticut 21st-century American women politicians