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School bathroom ban? Not on Katie's watch. [1]

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Date: 2023-06-09  

On Thursday, Arizona Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed a Republican-backed Senate bill that would have limited access to public school bathrooms and locker rooms to members of the same biological sex.

According to the article from AZ Central,

The bill required schools to provide restrooms for a person who "is, for any reason, unwilling or unable to use" shared restrooms or changing facilities designated by sex, and allowed anyone who encountered a person of the opposite sex in a shared bathroom or changing room to sue the school if it gave transgender people permission to use that facility. The bill would have applied the same provisions to shared sleeping quarters, such as on overnight school trips.

In her veto letter, Hobbs wrote that Senate Bill 1040 is "yet another discriminatory act against LGBTQ+ youth passed by the majority at the state Legislature", adding, "I will veto every bill that aims to attack and harm children." (Hobbs vetoed a prior bill restricting pronouns allowed in schools.)

State Senator John Kavanaugh (R-Fountain Hills), the bill's sponsor, was predictably not very happy. In his statement, Kavanaugh said Hobbs had forgotten about the privacy needs of "innocent young girls." He also accused Democratic lawmakers --who unanimously opposed the bill — and the governor of "catering to an extremist culture by pushing 'gender neutrality' as a means to win political points from their liberal base." (For the record, Fountain Hills is an “upscale”, i.e. wealthy, conservative enclave outside of Scottsdale.)

Governor Hobbs has made her support for the LGBTQ+ community quite clear by hanging four large pride flags from her 9th-floor office suite at the AZ State Capitol marking the start of Pride Month. She has also stated she will not support bills that limit LGBTQ+ rights.

SB 1040 is one of five bills Hobbs vetoed yesterday, bringing her total to 111, a record for the most vetoes in a single year. As long as the Republican-majority AZ Legislature keeps sending bills that conflict with Governor Hobbs' priorities and beliefs to her desk, she's going to keep that veto stamp very, very busy.

Go, Katie!

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/9/2174362/-School-bathroom-ban-Not-on-Katie-s-watch

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