Gov. Katie Hobbs Vetoes Anti-Trans Bills, Chides GOP for Attacking Arizonans

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) vetoed a slew of bills this week aimed at limiting the rights of LGBTQ people, including one targeting transgender children and their use of locker room facilities at schools throughout the state.

Senate Bill 1182 sought to ban trans students from using showers in school locker rooms that correspond to their gender. Instead, schools would have to provide separate private showers to those who were unwilling to use facilities matching the sex they were assigned at birth, the proposal stated.

In a two-sentence veto letter to the Republican-led state legislature, Hobbs explained why she was blocking the bill from becoming law.

“Today, I vetoed Senate Bill 1182. As I have said time and time again, I will not sign legislation that attacks Arizonans,” Hobbs wrote.

Republicans blasted Hobbs’s decision to veto the bill, arguing that the move symbolized a “war against women and girls,” a false talking point commonly utilized by anti-transgender voices. Studies have shown, however, that anti-trans restrictions do nothing to protect cisgender girls from assault — and in fact, bathroom bans endanger trans students, increasing the likelihood that they will be assaulted at school.

Hobbs also vetoed House Bill 2438, which bars any gender marker changes on birth certificates. The governor noted in a signing statement accompanying that bill that it “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,” Hobbs added.

Hobbs also vetoed House Bill 2062, legislation that would deny legal recognition of transgender people by defining individuals as male or female based on the sex a person was assigned with at birth. The bill would also bar recognition of nonbinary people, as it states that “every individual is either a male or female.”

Hobbs has a history of taking proactive steps to protect LGBTQ rights in the form of executive orders. In 2023, for example, she issued an order that guaranteed that transgender workers within the state government could receive gender-affirming care within their health care plans. That same year, she also issued an order banning conversion therapy for minors in the state.

“While Republicans in Arizona have remained unified in their push to pass anti-transgender legislation, Gov. Katie Hobbs has consistently used her veto power to halt those efforts at the finish line,” transgender journalist Erin Reed wrote in her “Erin in the Morning” Substack website on Monday. “Since taking office, she has positioned herself as a final line of defense against a legislative agenda aimed squarely at rolling back LGBTQ+ rights.”

Other observers praised Hobbs for taking a firmer stance on LGBTQ protections than other governors have in recent months, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).

“As Democratic governors like Gavin newsom throw transgender people under the bus, Katie Hobbs in Arizona vetoed legislation from Republicans that would have prohibited transgender people from changing their birth certificates if they received gender-affirming care,” wrote Eric Michael Garcia, Washington Bureau chief at The Independent, on his Bluesky account.