RaiseYourRights was founded by California mother of six Wylmina Hettinga in 2016 following a divorce and subsequent custody battle. Seeking to keep from losing custody of her children to her spouse, Wylmina was informed that only parents in Texas were afforded jury trial rights – families in California were either held together or ripped apart based solely upon the ruling of a judge.
Wylmina quickly realized that a citizen’s movement was necessary in California to protect parent’s rights, and in 2016 she gathered 100,000 signatures in an effort to get jury trial rights for parents on the California ballot in 2016. That effort fell short, but RaiseYourRights has been advocating and pushing ever since and now aims to get the issue on the 2022 California ballot.