The White Christian Nationalists in the Arizona Legislature are the Christian Taliban. They rule by a theocracy, a far-right quasi-religious political cult which is far removed and unrecognizable from any teachings of Jesus Christ. Make no mistake, they are NOT Christians, they are an American Taliban: MAGA Fascist White Christian Nationalist extremists. And they are waging a war against any American who does not share their extremist cult views.
Just look at their actions over the past couple of weeks.
The Arizona Mirror reports, AZ Republican senators pass anti-trans school bathroom bill (formerly styled the “show me your papers to pee” bill):
Just three states bar transgender students from using bathrooms that best fit their gender identity — and Republican lawmakers want to make Arizona the fourth.
Congressional Research Service Report: Transgender Students and School Bathroom Policies: Equal Protection Challenges Divide Appellate Courts (January 17, 2023): “The Courts of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the Fourth Circuit have ruled that school policies prohibiting bathroom access consistent with a transgender student’s gender identity can violate their right to equal protection of the laws, while the full Eleventh Circuit recently upheld a [Florida] school policy against an equal protection challenge.”
The proposal would force schools to provide separate accommodations for students who are “unwilling or unable” to use a bathroom or locker room that matches their biological sex. Refusing to follow that mandate would open schools up to lawsuits from those seeking to recover damages for “psychological, emotional and physical harm.”
[Taliban leader] Sen. John Kavanagh, the sponsor of Senate Bill 1040, said the measure is a compromise between trans and gender non-conforming students and their uncomfortable classmates [more like shameless Republican politicians.] The Fountain Hills Republican used alarmist imagery to convince fellow lawmakers to support the bill.
“There’s something terribly wrong with making a 15-year-old high school freshman co-ed stand naked in the school shower next to a naked 16-year-old biological male who may identify as female. That’s wrong,” he said.
Every GOP senator voted to approve the bill and send it to the state House of Representatives for further consideration, despite its almost certain rejection from Gov. Katie Hobbs.
Sen. Christine Marsh, D-Phoenix, who, like all of the Democrats in the chamber, voted against the bill, criticized it for singling out trans students when concerns could be resolved via other means. She noted that bathrooms already come equipped with stalls, and suggested requiring schools to hang shower curtains, instead. In a previous committee hearing of the bill, Marsh proposed the bill be changed to ask schools to provide accommodations for uncomfortable students, but that idea was rejected by Kavanagh.
“It’s pretty stigmatizing and discriminatory to expel transgender students from common spaces,” she said.
The bill sends the wrong message, Marsh added, and only serves to worsen the outlook for students who already suffer disproportionate isolation and violence.
“The idea that we’re going to pass a law that tells a certain population of kids that they are so shameful that they shouldn’t be allowed to participate in activities and in proximity to their peers is rather offensive,” she said.
The measure passed 16-14.
Another bill from Taliban leader Sen. John Kavanagh, Senate Bill 1001, barring preferred pronoun use in Arizona schools passes Senate:
Arizona Republican lawmakers on Wednesday unanimously backed a measure that critics warn would harm trans students, ignoring pleas from parents and students to reject it, and in spite of its unconstitutionality and guaranteed veto.
“This bill violates trust, eliminates the only safe haven some students have and allows bigotry in the name of religion,” the mother of a trans student wrote in a letter imploring lawmakers to defeat the proposal. “Let’s not be the state that willingly harms already disenfranchised students.”
The anonymous letter, along with several others, were read by Democratic lawmakers on the Senate floor in opposition to Senate Bill 1001, which passed on a 16-12 vote, supported only by Republicans. The bill bans the use of preferred pronouns inconsistent with a student’s biological sex, or names that aren’t rooted in the one that appears on official school documents.
Written parental permission would be required to circumvent those rules, but even that would be no guarantee: Teachers who have a “religious or moral conviction” [religious bigotry] would be allowed to defy that request.
On Monday, legislative attorneys warned the measure is unlikely to pass legal muster, given that the U.S. Supreme Court in 2020 ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County that gender identity is protected under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And, the anonymous mother added in a letter read by Tucson Democrat Priya Sundareshan, the Title IX Education Amendments of 1972 prohibit federally funded schools from engaging in sex discrimination, which the U.S. Department of Education has interpreted to include gender identity.
Trans youth warned that the proposal threatens to further stigmatize them, takes away a welcoming environment that many of them depend on and threatens to negatively affect their academic performance. Research from GLSEN, a pro-LGBTQ education organization, found that absenteeism rates decline when students feel supported in their classrooms. Other studies have found that gender-affirming care, which often includes preferred pronoun use, gives youth a greater sense of belonging, which contributes to lower rates of suicide risk.
Democrats slammed the measure as an attempt to score political points at the expense of [demonizing] vulnerable youth. And that effort has dire consequences: surveys conducted by the Trevor Project, an organization focused on suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth, concluded that discriminatory legislation negatively impacts the mental health of trans and nonbinary people, and may increase the rates at which they contemplate suicide — which are already disproportionately high.
“Caught in the crosshairs of elected officials’ divisive political strategy are vulnerable kids who are simply trying to navigate their adolescence,” said Sen. Christine Marsh, D-Phoenix.
“These students just want to feel comfortable as they learn. They’re not involved in some culture war, they’re not trying to score points,” added Sen. Juan Mendez, D-Tempe. “This proposal sacrifices students and their ability to learn in a safe space simply to make legislators feel more comfortable, and that’s a selfish shame that we bring to this state.”
Republican lawmakers bristled at the accusations, defending the bill as a protection of parental rights — despite the fact that it includes a carveout that would essentially allow school employees to override the will of parents.
[The so-called] “Arizona Parents’ Bill of Rights” reserves parental rights to a parent of a minor child without interference,” rebutted Glendale Republican [and January 6 insurrectionist] Anthony Kern. “This bill) puts the rights of the parents back into the hands of the parents and away from the teachers and school officials ” [excluding the parental rights of trans students who want what is best for their child.]
[Taliban leader] Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, who sponsored the measure, argued that it’s intended to protect trans students, not target them. He noted that gender dysphoria, a condition wherein a person suffers distress because their gender identity is incongruent with their biological sex, is often associated with higher rates of depression, and parents should be informed so that they might seek professional help.
“I think it’s dangerous to a child to purposely hide that information,” he said. “The parents need to know if their child is in emotional and psychological turmoil to the point where they could be suicidal.”
Gender dysphoria and the degree of social acceptance are closely tied, and the Mayo Clinic states that young adults without gender affirming care — which can include supportive therapy, hormone treatments or even correct pronoun use — are at a higher risk of contemplating suicide.
The proposal is destined to meet Gov. Katie Hobbs’ veto stamp. Her chief of staff, Allie Bones, dismissed it as dead on arrival after its first hearing in January, and spokeswoman Josselyn Berry told the Arizona Mirror that anti-trans bills are nothing more than a waste of time.
“The Legislature should be spending its time on real issues, not spreading hate against the transgender community,” she said.
The U.S. “Extreme” Court has already rendered women second-class citizens with its repeal of Roe v. Wade, but the Christian Taliban in Arizona is not satisfied. They want to codify into law that a fertilized egg has more legal protection than the woman who is carrying that fertilized egg. House Republicans pass bill that could codify fetal personhood:
Arizona has moved one step closer to what critics say is a sneaky attempt to add fetal personhood into state law in a way that would avoid a federal court ruling that blocked a straightforward personhood law passed two years ago.
Republican Rep. Matt Gress, of Phoenix, has introduced five pregnancy-related bills this year that some Democrats say are efforts to surreptitiously add fetal personhood into Arizona law, which could then endanger the rights of all pregnant people.
Gress says his bills have nothing to do with abortion and are only aimed at protecting mothers and children, though he has acknowledged working with [Cathi Herrod at] the Center for Arizona Policy — an evangelical Christian organization that aims to eliminate abortion — to craft some of the legislation.
In August, Republicans in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate introduced bills similar to Gress’, at the urging of anti-abortion groups. Sponsors of those proposals have said their goal is to sharply curtail abortion rights.
Three of Gress’s bills are still moving forward and have the potential to be approved by the legislature, although they will likely be vetoed by Gov. Katie Hobbs, a pro-choice Democrat.
The House voted 31-28 along party lines on Feb. 28 to approve Gress’s House Bill 2427, which would lower the barrier to file aggravated assault charges against someone who knowingly attacks a pregnant person, and increase the sentencing for a person who hurts a pregnant victim during a domestic assault. It will next move to the full Senate for consideration.
During debate, Gress dodged a question from Democratic Rep. Analise Ortiz, of Phoenix, asking why he received input on the bill from the Center for Arizona Policy, but not from the Arizona Coalition To End Sexual And Domestic Violence, which took an official stance against the bill.
Rep. Athena Salman, D-Tempe, told her fellow representatives that she believes there are already sufficient criminal penalties in place in Arizona to ensure that perpetrators of domestic violence with pregnant victims face appropriate consequences.
Ortiz agreed and asked her colleagues to vote against the bill, urging them to consider the potential broader implications.
“I’m concerned about ingraining into law something that gives fetuses more rights than the pregnant person,” Ortiz said.
Gress’ other bills that still have a chance for approval are House Bill 2502, which would allow a parent who has been awarded child support to receive retroactive payments, back to the date of a positive pregnancy test and House Bill 2501, which would provide a child tax credit to a woman or her spouse during the year before her child is born.
Gress’s House Bill 2417, which would have allowed pregnant women to drive in the HOV lane, essentially counting the woman as two people, was never assigned to a legislative committee and is dead. His House Bill 2500, which failed in committee, would have provided compensation to a woman who was impregnated during a sexual assault and then carried the pregnancy to term.
The Christian Taliban in Arizona is also active in the courts, which have been packed with Republican judges by former Gov. Doug Ducey, who never failed to sign an anti-abortion law from the Center for Arizona Policy.
The Christian Taliban’s legal shop, the purposefully misleadingly named Alliance Defending Freedom, have filed an appeal to revive Arizona’s 1864 near-total ban:
A Scottsdale-based law firm is hoping to reinstate a near-total abortion ban from 1864, filing an appeal on Wednesday to overturn a court ruling that allowed limited access to the procedure.
Alliance Defending Freedom wants the Arizona Supreme Court to void the decision of the state appeals court that determined a 2022 law outlawing elective abortions after the 15-week mark supersedes the near-total ban originally written in 1864.
Among their arguments is that the state’s history of Republicans winning elections is evidence enough that both the legislature and citizens side with the 1864 law and want to abolish abortion in Arizona nearly entirely.
Arizonans … made their voice heard at the ballot box — electing Legislature after Legislature to protect life as much as possible. And lawmakers delivered,” the attorneys wrote.
Yes, gerrymandered districts which have preserved GQP authoritarianism, trumps a changing electorate which overwhelmingly opposes the repeal of Roe v. Wade and criminalizing pregnant women and their medical providers for an abortion.
A September 2022 Arizona Public Opinion Pulse (AZPOP) from OH Predictive Insights (OHPI) asked respondents about their views on abortion:
An overwhelming majority of Arizona voters want abortion to be legal in at least some cases (91%), leaving only 9% of those who believe there should be a total ban on abortion in the state. Over half of Democrats (58%) and 42% of Independents share the belief that abortion should be legal regardless of the circumstances, a notion that is also shared by a plurality of Hispanic/Latino voters (46%).
While 9 in 10 voters agree that abortion should be legal in at least some cases, a smaller share (64%) view it as an issue that would impact their decision as to whom to vote for; however, the impact is not equally shared across parties. Four in 5 of Democratic voters (81%) say a candidate’s stance on abortion is very/somewhat impactful to their voting decision, compared to 58% of Independents and only 1 in 5 Republican voters (18%).
The appellate court sided with abortion advocates, noting that if the legislature, which passed the [15 week abortion ban in the] 2022 law, intended to completely eliminate instead of just restrict abortion, they would have said so more explicitly. Erasing the 2022 law based on its non-repeal provision would be “nonsensical,” they concluded
Before the clarity offered in that ruling, the state had been roiling from conflicting messaging and shuttered clinics as state leaders vied over which of the two bans was the law of the land and doctors refused to provide the service, fearful of the mandatory prison sentence attached to the 1864 law.
The state appeals court’s decision was widely regarded as the final say, especially after voters elected Democrats to state leadership in the November midterms, including current Attorney General Kris Mayes, who has repeatedly reiterated her refusal to take on her predecessor’s hard-line stance against abortion.
But Alliance Defending Freedom filed an appeal on behalf of Dr. Eric Hazelrigg, the medical director of anti-abortion clinic chain Choices Pregnancy Center. Hazelrigg was allowed to intervene on behalf of the state’s unborn children — a position that was added to the case in 1973 when the Civil War-era ban was first litigated.
* * *
In January, a federal judge reinstated a ban on abortions performed because of a fetal genetic abnormality. That ban is part of a 2021 law that includes a fetal personhood assertion which is currently blocked. The injunction holding it back is set to expire in July, and while Mayes is unlikely to defend the law in court, GOP leaders in the state legislature, with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, have requested to intervene.
The law firm is also representing an anti-abortion medical association seeking to reverse the FDA’s approval of abortion pill mifepristone in a Texas lawsuit that advocates fear will succeed.
This case from the “Texas Pipeline” of radical Republican activist judges is eventually headed for the U.S. “Extreme” Court.
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I for one am glad John Government Paychecks Kavanagh has solved all of Arizona’s actual problems and has time to focus on the pretend stuff.
I mean, Arizona must be number one in education, graduation rates, infant mortality, the Saudi water issue is fixed, unemployment is zero, we have the highest national average wages/pay, business are flocking to move here, there are no homeless vets or hungry children, all the homeless have homes and guacamole is now free.
This BS Government Paychecks Kavanagh and his GQP party is just for fundraising, these are not competent or serious people.
They know 99% of their BS is un-Constitutional and is a waste of taxpayer money.
This is just more of Steve Bannon’s flood the zone with shit strategy to distract Arizonans from their elected reps failing them.
This is where demonization of minority groups to subject them to violence leads: “CPAC Speaker’s Trans Comments About ‘Eradication’ Sound Downright Genocidal”, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cpac-trans-kids-eradicated-transgender-michael-knowles_n_64038d23e4b0c78bb7430b1c
[It] became clear at CPAC that the Republican campaign against trans kids isn’t just a mere ploy to energize its base — it could also be the beginning of an insurgent fascist campaign to erase trans people from public life altogether.
Michael Knowles, the host of ”The Michael Knowles Show” on The Daily Wire, gave a speech at CPAC that, at moments, sounded genocidal. “The problem with transgenderism is not that it’s inappropriate for children under the age of 9,” he said. “The problem with transgenderism is that it isn’t true.”
There are an estimated 1.6 million trans people in the United States. Knowles essentially told the CPAC crowd that these people should not have a right to exist.
“If [transgenderism] is false, then for the good of society… transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely,” he said.
Eradicated. The crowd roared again.
https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1632057198577606657?cxt=HHwWgoCz5YDYnaYtAAAA
More from Taliban leader Sen. John Kavanagh, “Anti-drag bills win unanimous approval from Senate GOP”, https://www.azmirror.com/2023/03/03/anti-drag-bills-win-unanimous-approval-from-senate-gop/
Teachers who play movies like Mulan or Mrs. Doubtfire in class would jeopardize their school’s funding, under a proposal Senate Republicans on Thursday sold as protecting children from the dangers of drag shows.
“I don’t think government money should be spent to confuse and disturb children,” said [Taliban leader] Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, who sponsored the measure.
His legislation, Senate Bill 1026, prohibits any entity that receives state funding from hosting a “drag show targeting minors” or risk forfeiting that money for three years. But an amendment also bans school districts, cities and towns from using private money to pay for such a show.
Democrats opposed the bill, which passed on a party line vote of 16-13, denouncing it as yet another attack on the LGBTQ community in a landmark year for Arizona Republicans, who have introduced a spate of discriminatory legislation.
“It’s mind-boggling that we are focusing on these types of bills instead of the priorities that are on the minds of Arizonans,” said Sen. Raquel Terán, D-Phoenix.
More pressing issues like the looming housing crisis, education funding and the increasingly contentious state budget process should be at the top of the legislative agenda, she said, not proposals that contribute to hostility toward an already marginalized community. Bills like Kavanagh’s only signal to violent bigots that their behavior is acceptable, she warned.
Republican supporters of the measure were undeterred by criticism from Democratic senators, defending it as a regulation on where taxpayer dollars go and accusing drag performers of being groomers — a homophobic myth used to advance the idea that LGBTQ people are pedophiles. [QAnon orthodoxy.]
“There are taxpayers who do not agree (with drag shows), therefore their funding should not be utilized in this fashion,” Sen. Janae Shamp, R-Surprise, said. “It is extremely important to make sure that tax money is not spent on activities that are sexualized towards children.”
“There’s something wrong if there’s a drag queen who wants to go and perform in front of five-year-olds. It’s teaching children illicit behavior and it’s grooming,” echoed [the QAnon Witch] Sen. Justine Wadsack. She has embraced QAnon, the baseless conspiracy theory that is focused on stamping out a supposed global pedophilia ring run by world leadres and celebrities.
The Tucson Republican added that movies like Mulan and Mrs. Doubtfire, which Democrats warned stood to be looped into the bill’s prohibitions, are inappropriate for young children because of their PG-13 ratings. [PG stands for “parental guidance,” i.e., the parents decide what is appropriate for their children, not some wackadoodle state legislator.] While the live-action version of Mulan is rated PG-13, the 1998 animated movie, which still includes the titular character dressing and acting as a man, is rated G.
[The QAnon Witch] Wadsack authored her own anti-drag bill that also passed with solely Republican support on Thursday, with a 16-14 vote.
Originally, her measure included drag shows under the legal definition of adult-oriented businesses alongside porn shops and strip clubs, and would have forced any drag performer — not just those in adult-themed shows — who performed in front of minors to register as a sex offender and serve a 10-year prison sentence.
Wadsack, however, said she was concerned her bill’s broad definition of drag shows could criminalize everyday dance teachers and amended it on Thursday to punish only adult-oriented performances, removing any mention of drag shows.
But Democratic lawmakers pointed out her definition is still too vague and could be weaponized against drag shows by people who oppose them. The proposal, Senate Bill 1698, defines an adult-oriented performance as one which includes nudity, sexual activities, the exposure of “specific anatomical areas” or is harmful to minors. State law says that harm to minors means representation of sexual conduct that is offensive to the average person, appeals to the prurient interest and does not have any literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
The copy editor at the Arizona Daily Star responsible this headline should know that nobody “wins” when Fascists are allowed to demonize minority groups and subject them to violence, we all are worse off as a society and are on a slippery slope to totalitarianism. “GOP wins culture battles in Arizona Senate over drag, pronouns”, https://tucson.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/gop-wins-culture-battles-in-arizona-senate-over-drag-pronouns/article_485143b0-ba0a-11ed-809f-dff0f7ed892b.html
The culture war battles that have become a fixture of politics as conservative Republicans push back against progressive Democratic ideas about inclusion and diversity are on full display in the Arizona Senate.
Majority Republicans passed a pair of measures in the last week targeting drag performances they say amount to sexual grooming, arguing that the proposals are needed to shield children from “confusing’’ sexual content.
They also passed a measure that bars teachers or other school employees from referring to a student by a pronoun that doesn’t conform with their birth sex unless their parents give their consent. Even then, it allows the teacher to ignore what the parent wants for their child if it is “contrary to the employee’s … religious or moral convictions.’’
Together, the three bills are the latest in a string of actions in Republican legislatures across the nation, as lawmakers rebel against societal changes they object to.
Last year, Republican former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed several similar bills, including one barring transgender girls and women from competing on female sports teams in the state.
This year, Republican lawmakers are likely to have a different result in Arizona, as new Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs signaled in her January state of the state address she will veto legislation that she said “attacks the rights of your fellow Arizonans.’’
So Kavanagh’s entire legislatve agenda is solving problems that don’t exist and creating no bipatisan legislation that DOES address 100 Arizona issues?
Well, that’s what we can expect from Johnny Government Paycheck. Arizona is facing a monumental water crisis and he along with his ilk are supporting white christian nationalists and fighting ridiculous culture wars. Sure makes me confident in my decision to stay and retire here!