Republicans push back on anti-trans bills in Arizona

Last year was ‘worst’ for anti-trans bills in modern US history

Republicans may have introduced nearly 20 anti-LGBT+ bills during Arizona’s legislative session this year, but the GOP has also offered surprising resistance to a few of them.

Out of the 17 such bills, including 12 that explicitly target transgender people, Republicans pushed back against a number of such initiatives, according to analysis from The 19th.

Russel “Rusty” Bowers, the Republican House speaker in Arizona, bucked his party last week and temporarily halted a bill that would block the state from using nonbinary gender markers on official documents.

Mr Bowers is also co-sponsor of a bill that would ban anti-LGBT+ discrimination.

“I do not anticipate a rose-strewn path in front of me, but we are here honorably and working together,” he told the AP of the effort.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, state Senator Tyler Pace voted to narrow the scope of an anti-trans healthcare bill which would limit gender-affirming care for youth under 18 years old, including therapy, puberty-suppression, and genital surgery.

“The testimonies we heard today about the many people who are using these avenues of medical treatments to save lives, to improve lives,” he said at the time. “I don’t want to stop those great things that are going on.”

He said he would only support banning gender surgery for trans youth.

"When you meet our kids and you see them and you meet our community, a lot of those biases that people carry are dispelled, because we’re just families trying to do the right thing," Lizette Trujillo, whose 14-year-old transgender son testified about such care before lawmakers, told NBC News. "I think that Senator Pace saw that in that moment."

It’s a small measure of progress, according to activists.

“I see a slight change … I think a little bit more thoughtfulness is going into these arguments,” Bridget Sharpe, director of the Human Rights Campaign’s Arizona programme, told The 19th.

Still, the Arizona legislature is hardly a paradise of gender inclusion, with the GOP-controlled houses considering bills that would stop trans kids from playing sports that match their gender identity, and another being considered that would limit bathroom access in public schools.

Nationally, last year was considered the “worst year for anti-LGBTQ legislation” in modern history, according to rights group, as attacking trans kids has become a signature culture war issue for conservatives alongside critical race theory and pandemic restrictions.

This year has seen another onslaught of such bills, with more than 160 being proposed, most against trans people, according to the advocacy group Freedom for All Americans.

Research has shown that the mere discussion of such bills has a negative impact on trans youths’ mental health, and according to data from The Trevor Project, trans youth are up to four times more likely to consider suicide.