Governor Ducey also signed legislation Wednesday that prohibits gender-affirming care for Arizona trans children, while banning trans girls from school sports teams that align with their gender identity. In a statement, the ACLU of Arizona said, “Governor Ducey’s decision to sign this harmful and discriminatory piece of legislation into law is nothing more than a political ploy to score points with extremist lawmakers and hateful groups peddling falsehoods and manufactured outrage.”
Elsewhere, Oklahoma Republican Governor Kevin Stitt signed a similar ban on trans women and girls in public schools and colleges. The Arizona and Oklahoma bills were signed one day before the International Transgender Day of Visibility — observed today, March 31. Ahead of the occasion, trans activist and organizer Raquel Willis held a Trans Youth Town Hall with trans and gender nonconforming youth.
Kairu: “It is insane how taxing that must be on someone who just wants to do something that they love, do something that is good for them and be a part of a team and have that spirit.”
Miles: “A lot of the science saying that there’s problems with trans people doing things and they’ll have unfair advantages, there’s plenty of other research out there that says otherwise, right?”
Eli: “Why aren’t we talking about the fact that I’m 5’6”, 5’7”, on a good day?”
Miles: “Right.”
Eli: “I’m not playing basketball.”
Miles: “Right.”
Eli: “I think that there are a lot of issues that people just pass over just to marginalize and target trans people.”
Click here to see our interviews with Raquel Willis. Click here to see her Trans Youth Town Hall.
This content was originally published here.
