ABOVE: Arizona Republican State Sen. Tyler Pace. Photo via Pace.
A bill aiming to ban gender-affirming care for LGBTQ youth in Arizona is effectively dead after Republican State Sen. Tyler Pace broke from his party last week and voted against the legislation.
The rare and unexpected move came last Wednesday with Pace joining three Democratic colleagues on the Arizona Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee, splitting the vote 4-4 and effectively stalling the bill.
Though Pace saw “both sides,” he attributed his vote to the testimony of LGBTQ youth and their parents against the anti-trans youth health care bill.
“The testimonies we heard today about the many people who are using these avenues of medical treatments to save lives, to improve lives,” he said during the committee hearing, “I don’t want my vote to stop those great things.”
At the hearing, trans youth and their families stood in front of the committee to testify against the anti-trans bill.
“Kids like me should be able to be who they are without lawmakers attacking their rights,” said Samuel Cars, who is trans and bisexual. “I ask you when you vote on this bill to think about me and this question: What side of history do you want to be on? Because the only way to be on the right side is vote no on this bill.”
Other people who spoke to the committee noted how the bill could increase suicide rates for Trans youth in the state. Late last year, LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention group The Trevor Project found a strong link between gender-affirming therapy and lower rates of suicide and depression in Trans youth.
The legislation – S.B. 1138, which sought to ban gender-affirming care to Trans and nonbinary youth, including reversible puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries – was one of Arizona’s 15 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced so far this year, the most of any state, according to NBC News.
Pro-LGBTQ+ activists and lawmakers grew so concerned over the legislative landscape that they hosted a press conference last month, sounding alarm bells over the anti-LGBTQ+ bills.
“This is an attack on human rights,” said Arizona state Rep. César Chávez, chairman of the Arizona LGBTQ Legislative Caucus, at the press conference hosted by the HRC. “We’re criminalizing individuals for being who they are. On top of that, we’re criminalizing doctors and health care workers, individuals that are doing their job.”
The Arizona state Senate passed an anti-Trans sports bill at the beginning of February that would restrict Trans women and girls from playing on school sports teams that match their gender identity. Pace voted in favor of the legislation.
Last year, Arkansas and Tennessee passed similar gender-affirming care bans, making them the only two states in the country to do so. However, a federal judge blocked the Arkansas ban last summer, according to LGBTQ+ research nonprofit the Movement Advancement Project (MAP).
MAP also notes that Tennessee’s law prohibits medical providers from providing hormone-related medication to “prepubertal minors.” “Best practice medical care for transgender youth only includes such medication once a youth has entered puberty, not prior to it, and this further illustrates how these legislative efforts reflect a fundamental lack of understanding of medical care for transgender youth,” it added. “However, this legislation sets a dangerous precedent for further restrictions of medical care for transgender youth.”
