With Friday’s committee deadline behind us, each chamber of the Arizona legislature now has one week left to transmit their bills to the next chamber. This is what’s known as crossover week, and it’s one of the most hectic weeks of the entire session. We’ll be down at the capitol Wednesday morning for our annual Equality Lobby Day, and we hope you can join us!
Heading into crossover week, we’ve already seen the defeat of one anti-LGBTQ+ bill, HB 2294, which would have made it illegal for state agencies like the MVD or vital records department to issue documents with gender markers other than M or F. On Thursday, February 17, HB 2294 died on the House floor with Speaker Bowers breaking party lines to vote it down. Two further anti-LGBTQ+ bills have encountered roadblocks, with both SB 1049 (which would penalize schools) and HB 2161 (which would require teachers to out trans students) retained on calendar and facing the possibility of never receiving floor votes. With SB 1138 in its amended form heading into the Senate Rules committee this afternoon, no other bills of concern remain in motion at this time.
When crossover week comes to a close, we’ll then enter a period of a month in which bills that have crossed over from the House to the Senate, or the Senate to the House, can receive committee hearings1. Two bills have already made it this far: the student athlete ban SB 1165 has been transmitted to the House and has yet to receive a committee assignment, and the book ban HB 2495 has been assigned to the Senate Education Committee.
By next Monday, SB 1165 and HB 2495 could be the only two anti-LGBTQ+ bills left in the Arizona legislature, but no matter what happens during crossover week, we’ll be dealing with a much smaller mass of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. While strike-everything amendments mean that no policy idea is every truly dead until the end of the session, entering crossover week means getting to leave the following anti-LGBTQ+ bills behind us:
SB 1045, which would have banned gender-affirming care for youth and required school employees to out trans kids.
SB 1046, which would have banned trans girls from girls sports in schools and required invasive testing and genital inspections for girls whose gender was questioned.
SB 1130, which defined gender affirming care for children and vulnerable adults as a form of abuse, criminalizing providers.
HB 2011, which targeted GSA clubs in schools by introducing a parental opt-in requirement and other restrictions.
HB 2281, which would have introduced $15,000 penalties against individuals in violation of the parental bill of rights.
HB 2285, which would have restricted sexual health education about HIV/AIDS and required sex education to “emphasize biological sex and not gender identities.”
HB 2292, which would have mandated that Arizona birth certificates could only be issued with M or F gender markers.
HB 2293, which stipulated that schools couldn’t require employees to respect a student’s pronouns or penalize them for misgendering students.
HB 2314, which would have banned trans kids from school bathrooms, changing rooms, and other “multi-occupancy facilities” appropriate to their genders.
HB 2608, which would have banned gender-affirming care for youth2.
To learn more about the schedule of the session, check out our legislative guide!
Note that the developments around SB 1138 make it unlikely for any bans on gender-affirming care — like SB 1045, SB 1130, or HB 2608 — to return as strike-everything amendments.
