Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a number of Republican charges, including those that would have allowed prejudice against transgender people and given public school teachers a green light to publish the Ten Commandments in their rooms. Katie Hobbs on Tuesday.
Hobbs vetoed 13 bills, bringing her total for the year to 42. She has made it clear that she will use her veto power on any bills that don’t have bipartisan support, especially ones that discriminate against the LGBTQ community.
Republicans reacted with a clear outburst to Hobbs’ veto of their state’s “Arizona Women’s Bill of Rights,” which would have replaced it with a rigid and inflexible definition of biological gender. The bill would have called for the separation of sports teams, locker rooms, bathrooms, and perhaps domestic violence tents and physical assault crisis centers by natural sex, no female personality, green-lighting discrimination against transgender Arizonans.
In a brief letter explaining her veto of Senate Bill 1628, Hobbs stated, “I will not signal regulations that attack Arizonans,” as she has repeatedly stated.
The response to the veto by the Arizona Senate Republicans contained unfair speech about transgender people and accused them of simply acting as though they were born a gender different.
By absolving the Arizona Women’s Bill of Rights, Senate Republicans wrote in a statement, “With the radical left trying to force society to accept the notion that science doesn’t matter, and biological men can be considered females if they ‘feel’ like they are,” said Hobbs and Democrats at the Arizona State Legislature.
The Democrats who voted against the costs continued to criticize the Senate Republicans of endangering people.
Democrats are only adding to the dysfunction by pretending that biological sex doesn’t matter, according to Senate President Warren Petersen in a statement. “Our girls, grandchildren, sisters, and neighbors are growing up in a dangerous period where they are living with an increased chance of being victimized in open restrooms, showers, and locker rooms because Democrats are now welcoming biological males into what used to be traditionally healthy, single-sex spaces.”
However, trans advocates claim that there is no proof that using a toilet that aligns with their identity will make those areas unsafe for everyone else who uses them, according to at least one study.
In the speech, the bill’s partner, Sen. Sine Kerr, R-Buckeye, claimed that the costs may include stopped transgender women from competing in female sports, everything she said gives them an unfair benefit. However, when Republican governor in 2022 passed a rules to do so, Republicans now did so. Despite the fact that the law is not already being enforced because of a court challenge filed by two trans sports, Doug Ducey was still in business.
Republicans rebuffed Senate Bill 1151, which would have allowed educators or administrators to post or tell the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, a position that some Republicans also questioned as possibly illegal.
In a speech, the bill’s partner, Sen. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, accused Hobbs of “abandoning God” with her veto.
By opposing regulations that would have allowed people schools to include the 10 Laws in classrooms, Katie Hobbs is contributing to the social degradation in Arizona, Kern said in the statement.
In her reject email, Hobbs said she questioned the validity of the expenses, and likewise called it unnecessary. During conversation of the bill in March, many critics pointed out that posting the 10 Commandments in open school classrooms, tenets of Judeo-Christian religions, might render children whose families practice different religions feel miserable.
“Sadly, Katie Hobbs’ veto is a prime example of Democrats’ efforts to push state-sponsored atheism while robbing Arizona’s children of the opportunity to flourish with a healthy moral compass,” Kern said.
Senate Bill 1097, which would have required candidates for school boards to declare their party affiliation, was another Republican proposal on Hobbs’ veto list. School board races in Arizona are currently nonpartisan.
In her veto letter, Hobbs argued that this bill will further the politicization and polarization of Arizona’s school district governing boards. The focus should continue to be on making the best decisions for students. “Partisan politics do not belong in Arizona’s schools.”
