ABOVE: Arizona state Rep. Daniel Hernández. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Hernández)
A legislative measure pushed by Cathi Herrod President of Center for Arizona Policy, a vehemently anti-LGBTQ policy think-tank and advocacy group, was passed by the Arizona House of Representatives Wednesday.
Senate Bill 1456 was voted through in a 31-28 vote with one abstention on a party-line vote. It already had passed the Senate and now goes to Republican Gov. Doug Ducey for his signature.
Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, had introduced SB 1456 in February where it was passed out of the Senate Education Committee along party lines.
“Parents shouldn’t have to worry about what schools are teaching their children about human sexuality and gender identity,” Barto said during a committee hearing on the measure.
The Associated Press reported that the measure pushed by Herrod’s anti-LGBTQ conservative group is framed as a parental rights issue and would require schools to get parents’ permission for discussions about gender identity, sexual orientation or HIV/AIDS in sex education classes.
Schools also would need parents to sign off on their children learning about historical events involving sexual orientation, such as a discussion of the modern gay rights movement that sprang from the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York.
The #AZHouse acknowledged parents – not government – have the fundamental right to guide the education and upbringing of their children when they passed #SB1456 just moments ago! @NancyBarto
— Center for AZ Policy (@azpolicy) April 14, 2021
Arizona would join five other states that require parents to opt their children into sex education instruction, including instruction on HIV and AIDS, as well as sexual orientation. While the state does not mandate sex education, individual districts and charter schools are allowed to decide whether or not to offer a sex education curriculum.
Democratic lawmakers and others opposed to the legislation contend that this bill will be called into question legally highlighting the fate of the infamous so-called “No Promo Homo” ban on any HIV/AIDS instruction that “promotes a homosexual lifestyle” which was passed in 1991.
Arizona lawmakers were forced to repeal the ban under threat of several Federal lawsuits by LGBTQ advocacy and legal groups nearly 20 years later.
The 2019 repeal came after the state’s top school official and that state’s attorney general refused to defend Arizona against the lawsuit alleging unconstitutional discrimination and restriction of educational opportunity for LGBTQ students.
Democrats warned during House debate Wednesday that the new proposal has similar constitutional issues.
Openly gay Representative Daniel Hernandez (D- District 2, South Tucson-Pima) angrily took to the House Floor, blasting the bill saying that it was little more than a vehicle for Herrod and the Center for Arizona Policy to fund raise from and that it was unnecessary. Hernandez blasted opposition lawmakers for wasting resources and time instead of addressing the fact that over 17,000 Arizonans have died because of the coronavirus pandemic.
