Arizona is a Safe Haven
Gov. Katie Hobbs signs executive orders restricting conversion therapy and making Arizona a safe haven for people seeking reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare
With just one week left of Pride Month, Governor Hobbs isn't slowing down. Her last three executive orders protect young people from conversion therapy, make Arizona a safe haven for people seeking, supporting, or providing reproductive and gender-affirming care, and adds coverage for gender-affirming surgeries to the state healthcare plan. Our team at Equality Arizona is proud to have contributed to this moment in collaboration with our incredible community partners, and we’re excited to continue to work together to advance LGBTQ+ rights and to ensure access to sexual, reproductive, and gender-affirming care.
Civic Advocacy
It’s worth taking the time to look at each executive order in detail. The powers of the executive branch are distinct from what can be accomplished through legislative action, but are far reaching and consequential. One way to think about it is that the Governor is like the CEO of a very large company (in fact, this is barely a metaphor — the state government is the largest employer in Arizona) with a number of divisions (state agencies) that each provide essential services to a large market. That company still has to follow the law, and it can’t write new ones, but because of its scale, changing how its services are designed and operated can produce transformative outcomes. Let’s look at how each executive order works.
Restricting Conversion Therapy
This executive order prohibits state agencies from directing state or federal resources towards conversion therapy and requires state agencies to develop policies to protect children from conversion therapy.
Protecting Reproductive Rights
This executive order consolidates responsibility for the prosecution of abortion-related charges with the State Attorney General; shields providers, families, supporters, and patients seeking reproductive healthcare from states enforcing civil and criminal bans; and creates an advisory council on protecting reproductive freedoms. The first component rests on the State’s interest to ensure that the law is applied equally across Arizona, and that because of our mess of overlapping bans and restrictions, that responsibility should not be left to each county individually. The second component bars state agencies from sharing data or resources to assist an investigation by another state into a patient or provider and commits to using executive authority to refuse extradition requests from other states for people seeking or providing abortion care. Lastly, the advisory council exists to make recommendations to state agencies as they design their services.
Protecting Gender-Affirming Care
Gender-affirming care has always had its barriers, and with escalating legal attacks and even criminalization of healthcare across the country, it’s important for Arizona to ensure that it is a safe haven for trans, non-binary, and gender-diverse people seeking essential care. This executive order uses the same framework as the one protecting abortion care to shield providers, families, supporters, and patients seeking gender-affirming care. Additionally, it lifts an exclusion in the state healthcare plan for gender-affirming surgeries, extending coverage of those treatments to the largest employee base in Arizona.
Political Power
As we celebrate these groundbreaking executive orders, it’s important to remember that we could easily have entered this year on very different footing, were it not for community organizing and the power of your vote. With a major election just coming over the horizon, it’s time to get moving. Join our team by signing up online or by attending our next monthly volunteer meeting!
Volunteer Team Meeting
5:00 pm - 8:00 pm July 20, 2023 | register
Drop in on our monthly volunteer team meeting for free food and to find your way to make a difference! At Equality Arizona, our team of volunteers is tracking policy from the school board level to the state legislature, designing policy and writing bills, sharing stories, hosting events, and organizing our community to build political power for the long term. The world is made up of a series of decisions — join a team working to make the world differently.
Location: Escalante Community Center, Tempe
Media & Events
Tonight is Ask Smart People Smart Questions! With each installment of the series, we a panel of experts to talk about the bigger picture of the big issues that affect the LGBTQ+ community in Arizona. While homelessness nationwide has stayed relatively flat over the past few years, the unhoused population in Arizona is growing at an unconscionable rate. Rental pricing is out of control, and statewide we have a shortage of 270,000 homes. All of this affects LGBTQ+ communities, including youth, disproportionately. Over the course of the event, we’ll cover four big questions about homelessness and the housing crisis with the goal of adding important context to the conversation.
From landlords to tenants to developers, cities, and the state, who is involved, and where do their interests align or conflict?
Who is left on the outside of the system, and how are their needs being met?
How do we balance community health with the need for development?
What solutions have been proposed, and what is actually getting done?
Join us at the Tempe Library, from 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm | register
Programming Note: as we work on some internal projects, we’re putting publication of new episodes of The Arizona Equals Conversation and Ask Smart People Smart Questions on hold, but we’re still recording interviews! If you want to share your story, or you know someone you think would be a great guest, just send us an email.