Arizona governor vetoes youth trans bathroom ban; vows to ‘veto every bill that aims to attack children’

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has vetoed a bill that would ban public school students from using restrooms and changing rooms that align with their gender identity, calling it “yet another discriminatory act against LGBTQ+ youth passed by the majority at the state legislature.”

Republican lawmakers, who have a slim majority in both legislative chambers, have advanced a slate of bills targeting the rights of LGBTQ people, which the Human Rights Campaign described as an effort to “assault the LGBTQ+ community and attack transgender children to appease their base.”

Hobbs, who recently rejected a bill that would have banned school employees from using a trans student’s preferred name or pronoun, wrote Thursday she would continue to “veto every bill that aims to attack and harm children.”

Bills aimed at restricting the rights of trans youth have been at the forefront of an ideological battle in GOP-majority statehouses across the country, where Republican lawmakers have been using anti-LGBTQ sentiment in an attempt to appeal to socially conservative voters.

On Tuesday, the HRC issued its first-ever state of emergency for LGBTQ people in the U.S., citing an unprecedented number of newly signed laws restricting the rights of queer and trans people across the nation — at least 76 this year alone.

That’s already more than double the number of laws enacted in all of 2022, which was previously the worst year for LGBTQ equality in the U.S.

At least 11 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced in Arizona this year, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Hobbs, a former Arizona secretary of state, won a tight race against Republican Kari Lake in last year’s elections. Her first official act as governor was to sign an executive order to strengthen anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ state employees and contractors.

Lake, a Trump-backed former television anchor, has yet to concede to Hobbs.