The Arizona legislature has filed more than a dozen anti-LGBTQ bills so far this year. Senate Bill 1165 (an anti-trans sports ban) passed out of the Senate last week and is awaiting a hearing on the House side. House Bill 2314 (an anti-trans school bathroom bill) will be heard in the House Education Committee this Tuesday.
This past Wednesday, the Arizona Senate Health and Human Services committee failed to advance Senate Bill 1138, an anti-trans medical care ban. The committee will hear the bill again Wednesday in the form of a striker. House Bill 2608, the House’s version of an anti-trans medical care ban, will receive a hearing in the House Judiciary this Wednesday. The bill denies age-appropriate, medically-necessary, gender-affirming care to transgender youth in Arizona.
The press conference will be held in front of the Arizona State House and follow the House Judiciary’s committee hearing, which starts at 8:30 AM MST in Room HHR 4 and will be live-streamed here.
National trans rights activist and ACLU attorney Chase Strangio will give remarks on the onslaught of bills attacking trans youth in Arizona and in state legislatures across the country.
Bans on gender-affirming care for transgender youth are cropping up in states around the country. Only one – in Arkansas – has so far passed into law, where it was immediately challenged and enjoined in court. Medical and mental health professionals oppose this legislation. The nation’s leading health organizations support gender-affirming care for transgender children, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the Pediatric Endocrinology Society, and the American Medical Association, among others.
The Human Rights Campaign has been organizing with local partners and running paid advertisements across the state highlighting how Arizona’s elected officials are endangering transgender youth.
