Arizona Governor Vetoes Transgender Restroom Ban
The bill would have offered alternative facilities to trans students while still barring them from single-sex spaces.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has vetoed a bill, passed by Republicans along party-line votes, seeking to bar transgender students from accessing gender-affirming facilities like restrooms and locker rooms.
Because both chambers of Arizona Legislature are closely divided between the two parties, a veto override is highly unlikely, meaning the measure will not become law.
Hobbs called the legislation “yet another discriminatory act against LGBTQ+ youth passed by the majority at the state Legislature.”
Hobbs previously vetoed a bill that would have barred teachers and school employees from referring to students using pronouns that don’t match their assigned sex at birth, except with parental permission. But those same school employees would also be allowed to ignore parental requests concerning pronouns if they have moral or religious objections to how the parent is raising their child.
She also vetoed a separate “parental rights” measure that would have allowed schools to be sued if they provide affirming spaces for LGBTQ students without informing the students’ parents of their child’s LGBTQ identity.
When she issued the veto of the pronoun bill, Hobbs warned lawmakers that she would veto similar measures seeking to restrict LGBTQ students’ rights or forms of self-expression, and renewed that promise with her veto of the restroom measure, writing, “I will veto every bill that aims to attack and harm children.”
Since taking office earlier this year, Hobbs has vetoed 110 bills, most of which were passed on party-line votes by Republicans who control both chambers of the Legislature.
The restroom and locker room facilities bill would have required schools to provide a “reasonable accommodation” if a student is unwilling or unable to use facilities matching their assigned sex at birth
Such accommodations could include a single-stall restroom, a separate facility, such as a faculty or staff restroom or changing room, or a restroom, locker room, or sleeping room (on overnight trips) designated for a specific sex, but only when no one of that sex is present.
The bill defined “sex” according to a person’s anatomy and genetics at the time of their birth, and as reflected on their original birth certificate.
It also would have allowed any cisgender person encountering a person of the opposite sex in a multi-occupancy restroom or changing facility to bring legal action against a school and recoup damages for “psychological, emotional, and physical harm,” so long as the lawsuit was filed within two years of the occurrence of the alleged violation.
Courts have generally been skeptical of legislation that imposes burdens on transgender students in terms of accessing restrooms or locker rooms. For instance, in the case of Gavin Grimm, a former transgender high school student in Gloucester County, Virginia, a federal judge found that the county’s policy of requiring only Grimm and other trans students to use single-stall restrooms made from converted broom closets — as opposed to holding out single-stall restrooms as an option for any student, regardless of gender identity — was discriminatory.
At least two federal appeals courts, the 4th Circuit and 7th Circuit, have previously ruled in favor of transgender students who sued over being barred from restrooms matching their gender identity.
But the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against a transgender student and in favor of a school district’s policy limiting access to certain facilities based on a person’s assigned sex at birth.
Sen. John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills), the chief sponsor of the restroom bill, argued that the measure was “common sense” and needed to protect the privacy and “modesty” of students who would otherwise be forced to share facilities with transgender students, according to Capitol Media Services, an Arizona-based publication covering state government.
He argued his bill was a compromise, ensuring single-sex facilities are restricted to people of the gender for which they’re designated while allowing alternative options for transgender students.
Sen. Christine Marsh (D-Phoenix) said that the proposed bill would only further isolate transgender students and could potentially exacerbate suicidal ideation among some students. She suggested accommodations should be made for those students who feel uncomfortable sharing multi-user facilities, rather than transgender students.
But Kavanagh — who proposed a law a decade ago seeking to make it a crime for a person to use any public facilities that don’t match their assigned sex at birth — said that such a solution was not feasible.
“That would be an unbelievable burden upon our schools and take valuable funding away,” he said. “Quite frankly, I don’t know what the percentage of transgender students are. But I suspect it’s well under 1 percent,” he said, meaning that schools would have to provide special accommodations for all non-transgender students.
He also raised concerns about transgender and cisgender students sharing communal shower facilities.
But Marsh said the solution should be to require schools to install shower curtains or individual shower stalls — to protect the privacy of all students, regardless of who is using the facilities.
The Human Rights Campaign praised Hobbs for vetoing the restroom restriction bill.
“Schools should be safe and welcoming places for all students,” HRC Arizona State Director Bridget Sharpe said in a statement. “This discriminatory bill never should have reached the governor’s desk, and we thank Gov. Hobbs for vetoing it.”
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