(Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)
Arizona voters appear all but certain about excluding trans students from girls sports teams and the school bathrooms and locker rooms that reflect their gender identity.
Dubbed the “Protect Girls Sports in Arizona Act,” Proposition 318 threatens schools and athletic associations with lawsuits if they allow trans girls to join the sports teams consistent with their gender identity or let someone use a locker room, shower facility or bathroom intended to be for a person of the opposite biological sex. It is already illegal under Arizona law to permit trans girls to play on school sports teams designated for girls, but the initiative would extend that prohibition to private athletic organizations, like Little League.
Votes for Prop. 318 raced to a likely insurmountable lead of more than 200,000 votes when initial election results were released shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday. Those votes came from early ballots that were returned prior to Election Day.
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Republicans put the question to voters in a bid to avoid a veto from Gov. Katie Hobbs, who has consistently vetoed legislation that attacks LGBTQ Arizonans. Republican supporters framed the proposal as a “common-sense” measure intended not to discriminate but rather to protect cisgender women. Rep. Selina Bliss, R-Prescott, who sponsored the initiative’s underlying legislation, said during a news conference in January that it would keep girls safe.
“This is common-sense legislation that, in this political environment, sadly must go to the ballot for the voters to decide,” she said. “The voters will decide this fall if they want to give schools and athletic associations the opportunity for transparency and to set all children up for success.”
Supporters of the measure have billed it as a way to prevent girls from facing sexual harassment, but research shows there is no link between trans-inclusive policies and the harrassment of cisgender women. And critics argue that the focus on villainizing trans people is nonsensical, given how few trans Arizonans, particularly those who are athletes, call Arizona home.
A 2022 population study by the Williams Institute found that just 3% of Arizona youth aged 13 through 17 identified as transgender. And between 2017 and 2022, when Arizona’s first trans athletic ban was passed, the Arizona Interscholastic Association — which oversees more than 170,000 student athletes across the state — approved just 16 applications from transgender students to play on teams that matched their gender identity. Half of them were from trans girls.
Opponents of the ballot measure argued that the language is broad enough to loop in people who visit schools during sporting events. And they warned that schools and athletic association administrators will have no choice but to police the gender of their students and members, opening up the possibility of intrusive questions or policies being implemented. Prop. 318 makes athletic associations and schools vulnerable to lawsuits if another student feels uncomfortable sharing a space with a trans student, but it includes no explanation for how officials are expected to implement the prohibition.
Critics also argued that the initiative does the opposite of what it purports to do, by exposing cisgender girls to uncomfortable questions and discrimination based on what someone else perceives their gender identity to be.
“The negative impacts (this) would have, not only on trying to bully and shame transgender people of all ages back into closets, into the shadows, but also to enforce a stereotype of what girls are supposed to look and dress and act like,” Joel Edman, a spokesman for Progress Arizona said. “The real risk that this measure poses is having all girls potentially scrutinized for being too tall, or too strong, or too good at whatever sport they want to play with their friends.”
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Courtesy of Arizona Mirror
