Proposal targeting trans students designed to bypass veto fails in Arizona Senate

A legislative proposal targeting transgender students that was created to bypass Gov. Katie Hobbs' veto failed in the Senate on Monday.

Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, sponsored Senate Concurrent Resolution 1013, which would have created a ballot measure for November. It would not have needed Hobbs' approval to go before voters.

The measure, if approved by voters, would have required schools to get parental permission before using a trans student's self-designated name and pronouns and prohibited trans students from accessing school facilities that align with their gender identity.

The resolution contained language similar to bills Kavanagh introduced last year that Hobbs vetoed. She called them "harmful legislation directed at transgender youth" and said that she would veto anything that "aims to attack and harm children."

The resolution failed to get the necessary 16 votes during the Senate floor session on Feb. 26. It received a vote of 15-14, with only Republicans voting in favor.

Ken Bennett, R-Prescott, who serves as the chair of the Senate Education Committee, was the only Republican to vote against it.

When explaining his vote on the Senate floor, Bennett said that he supported the underlying goals of the resolution and noted that he supported the two bills last year that had the same intention. But he didn't want to put the issues in a ballot measure because voter-approved laws are difficult to change, he said.

"I am very concerned about putting this to a vote of the people," Bennett said. "When we put things to the ballot for people to vote on them, if something goes awry, if there are unintended consequences, we can't do anything about it here. We have to go back to the people to fix something."

Although Kavanagh's ballot measure proposal failed, the Senate on Monday passed two bills directed at trans students. Both passed along party lines, with Democrats opposed.

Senate Bill 1182 would give students legal grounds to sue a public school if they encounter a "person of the opposite sex in a public school shower room."

Senate Bill 1166 would require a public school to notify a student's parents if an employee refers to the student by a name not listed on school records or a pronoun that does not traditionally align with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Before voting against SB 1166, Sen. Christine Marsh, D-Phoenix, said the bill would take away "a safe place for kids who may not yet be out to their parents." Sen. Mitzi Epstein, D-Tempe, said it would "force many adults to do something against their ethics."

In response, Kavanagh said the bill is about the "parent's right to know" if their child has gender dysphoria.

"The argument has been made, well, the parents may be violent in response to that. Parents can be violent in response to a lot of kids," he said. "A lot of kids are subjected to violence at home. And we do have Child Protective Services. We have school counselors who can contact them. So there's a method for that to occur."

The resolution and the two bills drew vigorous opposition during a Feb. 7 Senate Education Committee meeting from parents, advocates and transgender students, who called them dangerous and discriminatory and urged legislators to vote against them.

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During the Feb. 26 Senate floor session, several Democratic lawmakers read aloud messages they received from constituents in protest of the proposals.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Proposal targeting trans kids designed to bypass veto fails in Senate