By vetoing Democratic charges that would have allowed discrimination against trans people and given public school teachers the authority to publish the Ten Commandments in their rooms, including those that were supported by the governor, 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 any mention of identity with a rigid and inflexible definition of biological sex. The bill would have called for the separation of sporting groups, locker bedrooms, bathrooms, and even local violence tents and sexual abuse crisis centers by natural sex, no gender identity, green-lighting prejudice against transgender Arizonans.
“As I have said time and again, I will not sign legislation that attacks Arizonans,” Hobbs wrote in a brief letter explaining why she vetoed Senate Bill 1628.
The Arizona Senate Republicans accused them of only pretending to be gender diverse than they were born with the veto and used unfair language against trans people in their response.
Senate Republicans wrote in a speech saying that by destroying the Arizona Women’s Bill of Rights, the extreme left is trying to force world into believing that biological men can be considered women if they ‘feel’ like they are.
The Democrats who opposed the costs continued to criticize the Senate Republicans of endangering people.
Democrats are only aggravated by pretending biological sex doesn’t matter, according to Senate President Warren Petersen in the statement, instead of helping these confused boys and men. “Our girls, grandchildren, sisters, and neighbors are growing up in a dangerous period where they are living with an increased risk of being victimized in open rooms, 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 evidence that trans people can use the bathrooms in ways that are less safe for everyone else who uses them, which is what at least one study has found.
In the statement, the bill’s sponsor, Sen. In her defense, Senator Kerr (R-Buckeye) asserted that the bill would have prevented trans girls from competing in girls’ sports, which she claimed gives them an unfair advantage. But Republicans already passed a law to do just that in 2022, when Republican Gov. Doug Ducey was still in office, though that law is not currently being enforced amidst a court challenge filed by two trans athletes.
Republicans rebuffed Senate Bill 1151, which would have allowed teachers or administrators to post the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, a practice some Republicans even questioned as possibly unconstitutional.
In a statement, the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Anthony Kern (R-Glendale), accused Hobbs of “abandoning God” with her veto.
By vetoing legislation that would have allowed public schools to include the Ten Commandments in classrooms, Katie Hobbs is contributing to Arizona’s cultural degradation, Kern said in the statement.
In her veto letter, Hobbs said she questioned the constitutionality of the bill, and also called it unnecessary. During discussion of the bill in March, several critics pointed out that posting the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, tenets of Judeo-Christian religions, might make children whose families practice other religions feel uncomfortable.
“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.
Another Republican proposal on Hobbs’s veto list was Senate Bill 1097, which would have made school board candidates declare a party affiliation. School board races in Arizona are currently nonpartisan.
In her veto letter, Hobbs argued that this bill will further the politicization and division 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.”
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With almost 10 years of experience as a reporter and editor, Caitlin became an Arizona Mirror in 2022, holding local government leaders accountable in newsrooms across the West and Midwest. She’s won statewide awards in Nebraska, Indiana and Wisconsin for reporting, photography and commentary.
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The Arizona Mirror previously published the previous article, and it is now republished with permission.
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