Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs has vetoed three anti-transgender bills passed by the state’s Republican-led legislature, reinforcing her stance as a key ally to the LGBTQ+ community and a crucial bulwark against efforts to roll back queer rights in the state.
Despite the bills passing largely along party lines, Republicans lack the two-thirds majority in both the Arizona House and Senate needed to override Hobbs’ vetoes. Though considered a conservative stronghold, Arizona has seen increasingly narrow margins in recent national elections, having voted for a Democratic president in two of the last ten contests.
The bills in question included:
- H.B. 2438, which would have barred any changes to gender markers on birth certificates, even for those who had undergone gender-affirming surgery;
- S.B. 1694, aimed at denying public funding to any university or college that offered education on gender identity;
- H.B. 2062, which would have effectively eliminated legal recognition of transgender individuals within the state.
These bills closely mirrored executive orders signed by the current Republican president, part of a growing national trend among conservative lawmakers targeting transgender rights.
When rejecting the birth certificate bill, Hobbs issued a sharp rebuke:
“This bill will not lower costs, will not increase opportunity, and will not enhance security or freedom for Arizona. I encourage the Legislature to focus on real issues that matter and impact people’s everyday lives.”
In her veto of the higher education bill, which also sought to broadly cut funding to institutions teaching diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), Hobbs said:
“Our state universities and community colleges play a vital role in developing Arizona’s workforce, improving our economy, and strengthening our quality of life through transformational research. Jeopardising their state funding with a bill that lacks clarity attacks their future stability and would lead to negative effects on the state’s workforce and economy.”
A Consistent Record of LGBTQ+ Advocacy
Transgender journalist Erin Reed praised Hobbs’ ongoing resistance to anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, noting her record of affirming executive actions. In 2023, Hobbs signed orders mandating that state employee health plans cover gender-affirming care, extended anti-discrimination protections to LGBTQ+ state workers and contractors, and banned the discredited practice of conversion therapy. These actions sparked threats of lawsuits from Republican opponents.
She also previously vetoed a string of anti-LGBTQ+ bills, including one that would have:
- Allowed parents to sue schools over LGBTQ+ supportive policies;
- Required trans and nonbinary students to seek written parental permission to use affirming names or pronouns;
- Banned access to appropriate school bathrooms and locker rooms;
- Introduced restrictions described by Hobbs as “a thinly veiled effort to ban books.”
“Since taking office, she has positioned herself as a final line of defence against a [Republican] legislative agenda aimed squarely at rolling back LGBTQ+ rights,” Reed wrote.
Governor Hobbs’ latest vetoes have further cemented her image as one of the most staunch pro-LGBTQ+ state leaders in the US.
