Gun violence is the leading cause of death for U.S. children. Yet the superintendent of Arizona schools pushes for more guns in schools. Students Demand Action called a national student walk-out April 5 in response to their legislature’s hypocrisy. One organizer said that if Tennessee lawmakers “actually cared about protecting kids” they would “address what kills kids every single day” instead of banning books and drag shows.

On April 6, Tennessee lawmakers flew their racist flag high as they expelled two Black representatives for participating in a peaceful First Amendment protest while hanging on tight to the money of the gun lobby. Their time is running out and now they have just lost two generations of children who have been stalked by gun violence their whole lives.

The Second Amendment was originally written so that state militias could respond in defense of democracy if the government turned into a tyranny. Now the Second Amendment has been perverted to give individuals guns so they can overthrow the government and create a tyranny.

The culture wars attacking women’s reproductive autonomy, CRT, LGBT, and drag are an excuse to use violence to destroy democracy. These wars are being fought at the legislature but also on the street. Recently the Bridge, a small religious cult in Tucson supported by the Proud Boys, waged a campaign of intimidation against Bookman’s because of a scheduled drag story hour. Because of the threat of violence to individuals, the story hour was cancelled. An injunction was granted against the Proud Boys on June 23 by the Superior Court in Washington, D.C., in relation to the Metropolitan AME church they had been harassing.

Legislators never concerned about shooting before are concerned about the shooting at the religious Covenant school in May in Tennessee because the shooter was allegedly trans. In the past 41 years, 98% of the mass shooters have been men. At least 51% were white with 10% unknown. But you never once heard the white supremacist crowd suggesting we keep guns away from white men. Courts claim that baking a cake or making a website for a gay wedding is endorsing and/or participating in the wedding. But selling a gun to a mass shooter is not endorsing and/or participating in the shooting?

None of this – banning books, prohibiting language, refusing to teach about racism, preventing women and LGBT people from determining their own health care, or prohibiting people in costume from reading to kids – is about protecting children. The same legislature that banned abortion banned fetal medical care. The same legislature that bans books bans free lunch for hungry kids. The same legislature that “protects” children by prohibiting sex education at school passes a law to allow children to go to work at age 11. Their goal is not to protect children but to control society and force us all into their dystopian view of the 1950s.

I have participated in many protests since the 1960s. Some of them were against businesses like gun shops and pornography stores. But three things are different from the actions today by the white supremacists. If members of our group decided to break the law, i.e. do civil disobedience, we knew it was against the law and expected to be held accountable. Our goal was to change the law through the democratic process. Those threatening and using violence today have no respect for the law, believe it doesn’t apply to them, and violate it with impunity.

We took great effort not to harm individuals but only to target property. This group is just the opposite. Their threats and actions deliberately seek to harm individuals.

We protested actual events – the Viet Nam war, Jim Crow, beating women. The white supremacists are protesting lies that they make up. Elementary and secondary public schools never taught CRT. Drag story hour never sexualized or groomed children. Priests, pastors, coaches, child beauty pageants and pornography do that quite well. Yet they use their own lies to threaten harm to others.

Using street violence, white supremacists intend to overthrow democracy as did the “Brown Shirts.” We must maintain our democratic principles while using the institutions of democracy knowing that some are already corrupted. The times call for all of us to be active, democratic citizens because it appears that the “right to guns” trumps the “right to life.”

Dianne Post is an international human rights attorney.

The post Violence is being used to destroy democracy first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times.

Growing up in a conservative suburb, I used to dread the thought of what my community would think if they knew I was secretly gay. Listening to the media, Hollywood, and other gay influencers, I was led to believe that conservatives held homophobic and bigoted attitudes towards LGBT people.   

It turns out I was wrong. Today, I am proud to call myself gay. But I am also proud to call myself a Republican, and have been overwhelmingly welcomed by the community that I was once convinced by my liberal peers that I should fear. If you’re an LGBT American secretly harboring conservative views, or questioning the liberal talking points that we are expected as a community to believe but unsure if the Republican Party can be a home for you, let me assure you that it can be. 

I’ve always been gay, but I haven’t always been a Republican. I became one after moving to Los Angeles in 2013 and witnessing the dysfunction of the homeless crisis and cost of living brought on by one-party Democratic governance. I quickly became a conservative, and soon discovered an organization for people like me.  

Now, as the president of the quickly-growing Phoenix chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans, I am pleased to report not only that the number of outspoken conservative LGBT Americans is growing, but that the Republican Party has enthusiastically welcomed us into the tent.  

Don’t believe me? Look no further than the video that the chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party, Dr. Kelli Ward, released in June celebrating LGBT Pride Month, something that may have seemed unthinkable just a few years ago. Our Phoenix chapter, and our neighbor chapter in Tucson, regularly host fun events for our members with elected Arizona Republicans.  

This new embrace of LGBT conservatives as a part of the GOP isn’t just prevalent locally here in Arizona, but it exists across the country – all the way to the top of the Republican Party, thanks to former President Donald Trump. President Trump’s public embrace of his LGBT supporters was unprecedented in our party’s history. He was the first president in U.S. history to accept same-sex marriage from the first day of his administration. He was the first president to appoint an openly gay person, Ambassador Richard Grenell, to a Cabinet-level position. 

First Lady Melania Trump, in her own right, championed anti-bullying initiatives important to LGBT Americans and even appeared in a campaign video for the Log Cabin Republicans in the closing days of the 2020 race, a game-changing signal to LGBT conservatives that we are welcome members of the GOP. In fact, a group of our members are travelling from Phoenix to Florida next month to attend this year’s Log Cabin Republicans Spirit of Lincoln Gala at Mar-a-Lago, where the First Lady is being honored with our organization’s Spirit of Lincoln Award for her commitment to principles important to our community. 

I encourage all LGBT voters to look at what the Democrat Party has become and ask yourselves: “Does this party truly represent my values?” If the answer is no, don’t feel alone – the Republican Party has room for you. As Log Cabin Republicans, we believe in limited government, strong national defense, free markets, low taxes, personal responsibility, and individual liberty. We believe all Americans have the right to liberty and equality. If the Democrats’ increasingly leftist agenda no longer represents you, come to one of our events. Meet our members. You’ll see for yourself that the GOP can truly be a place for you to call your political home. 

Cale Ottens is chairman of Arizona Log Cabin Republicans and president of Log Cabin Republicans of Phoenix.  

The post LGBT and conservative? You’re not alone first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times.

Last week The New York Times warned that the Trump administration may soon define 1.4 million transgender Americans out of existence.

One of those Americans is Tracey Nadzieja, who was just this year sworn in as the first known transgender judge in Arizona.

And she’s not the only one now aiming to be a ray of hope for Arizonans. Democrats have put a lot of resources into energizing the youth vote. But will their efforts pay off?

Don’t forget to subscribe to The Breakdown on iTunes and Stitcher.

Music in this episode included “Creative Minds,” “Funky Element” and “Energy” by Bensound.

The post The Breakdown: No turning back first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times.

Tracey Nadzieja never wanted to be the story.

She spent decades trying to hide herself from everyone around her, terrified that they may one day learn the truth and she would lose everything.

But she was thrust into the spotlight on October 12 when she took an oath as a commissioner of the Maricopa County Superior Court. At that moment, she became the first known transgender judge in Arizona.

According to the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance, she’s just the third in the country.

Yesterday, Tracey Nadzieja was sworn in as a Commissioner of the Maricopa County Superior Court, making her the first #transgender judge in Arizona & only the 3rd in the U.S. Congratulations, Tracy! #trans #girlslikeus pic.twitter.com/jddUZCnNGN

— SoAZ Gender Alliance (@SAGATucson) October 13, 2018

Sitting down with the Arizona Capitol Times to talk about the historic moment was not easy, she said. She never set out to make history.

“That’s the weird thing about doing this. Yes, I’m the first, and that’s a story,” Nadzieja said. “But on the other hand, what I had basically hoped going into this job is that people won’t see that part of the story. That the whole transgender part of the story will ultimately become an absolute non-issue. That people will just see me as somebody who is competent, fair, dedicated and just like anybody else.”

Nadzieja ultimately accepted the attention for the people struggling with their own experiences who need to hear that they can be like anyone else. She wanted them to know that they can have the lives they want.

“There is a tomorrow, and tomorrow’s going to be better than yesterday,” she said.

That message comes at a time when the transgender community across the country feels attacked.

As first reported by The New York Times on October 21, President Trump’s administration is crafting a legal definition of gender as either male or female, unchangeable and determined by a person’s genitals at birth. Any dispute about one’s sex would have to be clarified through genetic testing, according to the Times’ account of a Department of Health and Human Services memo the newspaper obtained.

According to the Times, that would essentially define an estimated 1.4 million Americans “out of existence” in federal law.  

Nadzieja would be among them.

The federal department acknowledged months ago that it was working to rewrite a rule that bars discrimination in health care based on “gender identity.” It cited a Texas-based federal judge’s opinion that the original rule went too far in concluding that discrimination based on gender identity is a form of sex discrimination, which is forbidden by civil rights laws. The proposal would need to be signed off by the departments of Justice, Labor and Education, which are also involved with civil rights enforcement.

Phoenix Pride called the Trump administration’s move “an example of the worst kind of bigotry,” and “any attempt to curtail [transgender individuals’] rights to live, work and exist in our communities is an attack on both basic decency and against the rights that all people cherish to live as they are, free from marginalization by society and the laws that govern it.”

Nadzieja’s decision to apply for the commissionership came months before the Times report. It was not political in any way, she said. She wasn’t out to make a grand statement about state or federal law. It wasn’t about “us versus them.” She described herself as apolitical.

She applied because she wanted to use her education and legal experience to help people beyond the civil practice she had built over 25 years.

She spent the first 23 years of that as Tom. She came out to her law partners as Tom, transitioning slowly over time. Applying to be a commissioner was just the next step in her life, except she did it as Tracey.

Nadzieja’s first assignment as commissioner is in the criminal division of the Maricopa County Superior Court, presiding over proceedings in which recently arrested defendants see a judge for the first time.

She sits in the stark white courtroom at the Fourth Avenue Jail for seven days on, seven days off. The court is open 24 hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year. She’s often not only the defendants’ first contact with the justice system but also with a transgender person.

And if a byproduct of her serving in that role is that defendants walk away understanding she’s a person just like them, great, she said. It’s a humanizing experience, albeit in an odd setting.

She’s not going to fool herself into thinking everyone who reads about her will feel uplifted. But those people just haven’t met her, she said. She said she hopes people can see this as a step forward – then just let her do her job.

“This transcends everything,” Nadzieja said. “It transcends age, race, religion, politics, whatever. This has nothing to do with politics.”

This is her life. That’s it.

“I just wanted to be seen as any other woman,” Nadzieja said. “I didn’t want to stick out.”

Brianna Westbrook gets that.

Westbrook was a Democratic candidate in the February special primary election for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District. She ultimately lost to Hiral Tipirneni, but not before claiming 40 percent of the vote despite being heavily outspent. She also ran in the August primary for the Legislative District 22 state Senate seat, but fell to Wendy Garcia.

She said she never made her identity as a transgender woman a focal point of her campaigns. Like Nadzieja, she wanted to win because of her qualifications, not her identity.

But unlike Nadzieja, Westbrook is not afraid to get political.

She said the timing of Nadzieja’s appointment was perfect. Transgender rights are being ripped away, she said, and accomplishments like hers are making the community more visible.

“It’s important for us to have representation in every aspect of our lives whether it’s in office, whether it’s as a police officer, whether it’s as a judge,” Westbrook said. “This is a long-term battle, and we can’t change it if we don’t have a place at the table.”

She said the current state of politics is making that more difficult.

For example, she said the Trump administration rescinded rights for transgender children in public schools.

The U.S. Department of Education in February confirmed it would no longer investigate civil rights complaints from transgender students who couldn’t use school bathrooms that matched their gender identity. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Attorney General Jeff Sessions argued Title IX, which provides protections against gender discrimination, did not require schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice even though students had argued doing so was key to their safety.

And on October 24, Bloomberg Law reported that the Justice Department filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing businesses can discriminate against workers based on their gender identity. According to Solicitor General Noel Francisco, Title VII barring workplace discrimination does not cover transgender bias.

Westbrook said Arizona hasn’t been much better. The state has made some progress, but she said it’s not enough.

She referred back to ongoing challenges for younger members of the transgender community in public schools. She said there are only “muffled” conversations in sex education, for instance, preventing kids from learning safe sex practices or from better understanding themselves alongside their teachers and peers.

She said that can change as more transgender people step into the public eye. Their trans-ness doesn’t have to be a talking point, she said. Simply being present in the conversation is enough to remind others that they are there.

Nadzieja may not have explicitly sought out her place in that conversation, but she’s not turning back now.

She said fear is an incredibly powerful emotion – fear of rejection, of not being lovable, of not being accepted. She said fear drove the first 40-plus years of her life. She’s now 51.

Nadzieja first came out to her wife after 15 years of marriage. It was the first time she ever really faced that fear head on. Would she be kicked out of her house? Would she be kept away from her children? Would she lose it all?

Her life did not fall apart. She flourished and moved on to share that part of her life with her law practice, her friends at her 30th high school reunion and now the state.

“People take for granted when they wake up in the morning and they look in the mirror… and the person staring back at them, that is the person they are. I never had that in my whole life,” Nadzieja said. “I have now had a taste of life, of what life was meant to be, I now know what that feels like, and I can’t go back.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The post Transgender judge takes bench as gender issues heat up first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times.

From Flagstaff to Nogales, at least seven women’s marches and rallies were held around Arizona.

Department of Public Safety officials estimated that at least 20,000 people participated in Sunday’s two-mile march in downtown Phoenix that began and ended at the State Capitol.

The weekend marches and rallies around the country are in support of female empowerment and denouncing President Donald Trump’s views on immigration, abortion, LGBT rights and women’s rights.

Many of the events took place on Saturday, the anniversary of Trump’s inauguration.

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The post At least 7 women’s marches and rallies held around Arizona first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times.

The post Dem leader says new Senate harassment policy doesn’t go far enough first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times.

Kendra Tonan-Lizzarago loves dying her hair. She’s gone through blue, purple, orange, red – nearly all the colors of the rainbow. These days, her locks are bleached, with hints of faded pink shining through.

Now the president of Trans Spectrum of Arizona, an organization that supports and advocates for the transgender community, Tonan-Lizzarago came out as trans in 2015, and her wife and children have been supportive.

“I have the ability to live out and proud. Not everybody has that ability,” she said.

She’s working to educate Arizonans on what being transgender means and show them how they can protect trans people. Tonan-Lizzarago spoke to the Arizona Capitol Times about the various laws that affect the trans community, her past and what she hopes to see in the future.

The Arizona Legislature hasn’t had a bathroom bill in a few years. But they could again, and other states have. What are your views on bathroom bills?

They’re gateway bills. They actually open the door for more discriminatory things to be able to take place. To the average person, it might seem like it’s a minor thing – I don’t want that guy in the restroom with my daughter. For one thing, they don’t realize that trans women or trans men are actually the role they identify as. I’m just in there trying to use the restroom. I’m not trying to molest your child. There’s laws on the books to stop me from molesting your child, and if I were to, I would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, as I should be. I’m in there to use the potty. What happens with these bills is they open it up for more discriminatory laws to be put on the books.

What’s the single most helpful/impactful thing the Arizona Legislature could do for trans people?

Meet with us and listen. That’s really the crux of it – listen to us and actually realize that we are your constituents. We are the people that want you to be in office and continue to fight for you if you are fighting for us. We’re just like any other members of the state of Arizona. We want our rights, and we want to be able to do the things we should be able to do as citizens of the state.

The president recently tweeted that trans people would be banned from the military, though it’s a little unclear what that means. How did it feel to wake up and see something like that?

If you followed that up, his joint chiefs came out and said, we’re not changing anything in the military, until an executive order comes through and we’re actually told to do something, we’re not going to change anything. So, there’s checks and balances in our government, and that’s one of the things I’m truly proud of as an American. While our president can make a stupid tweet, he has to go through certain practices to enact these laws he’s trying to put out there. What if the law goes through, how does that make me feel? … When you’re in the foxhole with somebody, when you’re in there doing something, as long as that person has your back, it doesn’t matter what their sexual orientation is, who they identify as, as long as you know that person is your brother or sister and they’re going to have your back in that situation, that’s truly the crux of our military.

One thing that’s brought up in that argument is the cost of paying for transitions. Do you see any validity in that argument?

The cost of not treating someone who’s trans is astronomically higher. Our suicide rate is higher than any other demographic in the world. So our medical care, our mental health care cost skyrockets. Treating our dysphoria and giving us the transgender care we need is a pittance compared to what it would cost to force us to live a life we didn’t want to live.

What would you tell a lawmaker or the governor, if you had the opportunity, about what the trans community wants to see from them? What should they know about trans people?

As long as we’re treated as everyone else is treated, there’s no issue. It’s when we’re not. So as long as they realize we’re humans and we’re just trying to live our lives, we’re not trying to pull one over on people, it’s not a game, we’re not a fetish, whatever else people decide to call us under the sun… For me, sitting down with the governor, sitting down with a lawmaker, it’s an education at that point. Putting a face to the big bad transgender boogeyman or boogeywoman.

Arizona lacks laws that prohibit discrimination for LGBT people, though some cities have ordinances. Should we have statewide anti-discrimination law?

Yes, because it would make all the principalities under one rule, so there wouldn’t be the patchwork we have now where a certain city could discriminate against anyone, which is wrong in general, not just for transgender people, but just people in general. To put a blanket rule out over the state that says it’s illegal to do this, to move forward with all-inclusiveness, would be the smarter thing to do.

What’s the biggest misconception people have about trans people?

It’s really that we’re trying to pull something over on people, that we’re not authentic, we’re not who we say we are, it’s this big secret. … We’re just trying to be us. You don’t ask other people what’s between their legs. It’s not polite conversation. It’s not something you go around asking people randomly on the street, but trans people get asked all the time, male or female, usually within three or four questions of meeting somebody.

I read that you played football in college. Do you still play?

I played from fourth grade to my junior year of high school. I was on the offensive line. I hurt myself during practice my junior year, and in doing so realized I have huge deformities in my lower back and I never should have been playing football. But for me, playing football, especially in my youth, was a way of channeling that I didn’t feel normal. I didn’t fit in the locker room. I never understood locker room talk. I never understood hanging with the guys. I never really fit in. … I was really good at football because I had a whole lot of aggression that I could get out. Football gave me the opportunity to do so. I’ve never been a small person, so being able to use my size and strength to my advantage, just really get my anger out, was how I dealt with being trans.

The post Kendra Tonan-Lizzarago: Showing world what being transgender means first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times.

An economic backlash broadened Tuesday against a NorthAi??Carolina law that critics say discriminates against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people with PayPal announcing it has canceled a major expansion in the state.

NorthAi??Carolina has come under heavy criticism since Gov. Pat McCrory signed the law, requiring transgender people to use public bathrooms that match the sex on their birth certificates. The law, passed in response to a Charlotte ordinance that offered protections to gay and transgender people, also excludes sexual orientation and gender identity from the stateai??i??s anti-discrimination law and bars local governments from expanding anti-discrimination rules.

More than 100 corporate leaders have decried the law, saying it is unfair and makes it more difficult to attract talent.

Arizona has so far escaped what happened in North Carolina — not because of the views of legislators, but because of a veto by former Gov. Jan Brewer.

In Arizona, state laws prohibiting discrimination do not extend to gender or sexual orientation. And state laws allow businesses to ignore government rules and laws against discrimination if they can show they would interfere with the ownersai??i?? ability to practice a ai???sincerely heldai??? religious belief.

In 2014 the Legislature voted to extend that to situations where a business owner is being sued civilly by someone denied service, including LGBT customers.

But Brewer, who was governor at the time, pressured by the business community, vetoed the measure, saying the change ai???could divide Arizona in ways you cannot even imagine, and no one would ever want.

The governor said she understood the concerns of businesses that fear they would be forced to violate their religious beliefs. And she said those concerns are ai???not unfounded,ai??? taking a slap at the Obama administration and courts, which she said have increased ai???governmentai??i??s encroachment upon our religious freedoms.ai???

But Brewer called the measure flawed.

ai???The bill is broadly worded and could result in unintended consequences,ai??? she said. While proponents the measure argued they were seeking to protect businesses, Brewer said, ai???the business community overwhelmingly opposes the proposed law.ai???

The governor also noted several Republican legislators who voted for the measure said they were having second thoughts and had asked her to veto it.

Just days before signing the law in North Carolina last month, McCrory personally attended PayPalai??i??s announcement that it was opening a new operation center in Charlotte, where he was once mayor. On Tuesday, the San Jose, California-based company said it was canceling the $3.6 million plan, which would have created 400 jobs.

ai???This decision reflects PayPalai??i??s deepest values and our strong belief that every person has the right to be treated equally, and with dignity and respect,ai??? the company said in a statement.

PayPalai??i??s announcement came days after Lionsgate decided to move the filming for the pilot episode of a comedy series to Canada. New Jersey-based Braeburn Pharmaceuticals also said it was reconsidering building a $50 million facility in Durham County projected to bring 50 jobs paying an average of $76,000 a year. The NBA raised doubts about whether it would continue plans to hold its all-star game in Charlotte next year.

But PayPalai??i??s decision isnai??i??t likely to lead to a wave of businesses fleeing the state, said Ryan McDevitt, a Duke University professor who studies how companies compete. Technology companies are particularly outspoken on social issues because they need to attract highly skilled and mobile employees while also appealing to younger customers, he said.

ai???Theyai??i??ve built a lot of their brand or identity on the idea of being inclusive,ai??? McDevitt said. ai???I think this law in particular goes against that, and so no one wants to be seen as implicitly endorsing it by locating in NorthAi??Carolina now if a segment of their employees and many of their customers are going to be affected by it.ai???

When asked about PayPalai??i??s move Tuesday, McCrory repeated earlier comments that he was open to improving the state law but said it was needed to counteract the Charlotte ordinance. The lawai??i??s backers say it prevents men from molesting women in restrooms and locker rooms while claiming to be transgender. Opponents say that claim is bogus.

The law ai???was to ensure that that expectation of privacy would remain in our high schools and our universities and our community colleges,ai??? McCrory said. ai???For those who disagree with that basic norm, they have that decision to make.ai???

A group that supported the legislation said PayPal pulled out despite being promised millions in incentives. The NorthAi??Carolina Values Coalition said in a statement that ai???a company with its hands in the pockets of the taxpayers of NorthAi??Carolina shouldnai??i??t insert itself into the bathroom policies of the state.ai???

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The post Arizona narrowly avoided backlash facing North Carolina first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times.

Arizona’s lawmakers weren’t ready to consider legislation that would have let voters decide whether to outlaw discrimination against gays, leaders of gay rights groups say.

There was talk in the intoxicating days after federal courts struck down Arizona’s ban on same-sex marriage to possibly seek a legislative referendum, but that never happened.

Gay rights leaders have learned many lawmakers and 73 percent of Arizonans mistakenly think the state’s anti-discrimination laws already include gays.

Sheila Kloefkorn, a member of the board of directors for Human Rights Campaign, the largest Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender advocacy group in the nation, said her group discovered that mindset through a poll last year.

“As for elected officials, we’ve confirmed that by speaking with them directly and that includes legislators on both sides of the aisle,” said Kloefkorn, who declined to share the survey results or discuss it further.

Existing Arizona law makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender, age, race, religion or national origin.

Catherine Alonzo, co-chair of the board of directors for Equality Arizona, said the main public-policy efforts will be to continue getting anti-discrimination ordinances established in cities and towns and educate the public, business leaders and lawmakers. The efforts are led by Competitive Arizona, a coalition of gay rights groups,

“These issues are new to a lot of people,” Alonzo said. “We focused on and continue to focus on talking to legislators on why this is important, why these protections are important.”

The gay-rights movement with the help of business interests helped persuade Gov. Jan Brewer to veto SB1062 in 2014.  The bill would have expanded the rights of any business to turn away customers based on a claim that serving that person would interfere with a “sincerely held” religious belief. That proposal led to charges it would codify in Arizona law the right to discriminate against gays.

Federal courts declared Arizona’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional in October.  The U.S. Supreme Court on April 28 heard arguments on whether states have a right to impose such a ban.

Alonzo said despite all those developments, many lawmakers haven’t given much thought to non-discrimination protection. The court decision only heightened the urgency of creating a protected class for gays.

“The thing people don’t always think about is that while gay marriage was a fantastic win for us, and of course it was, it also opened people up to being discriminated against. They can get married on Saturday, go into work on Monday and legally be fired for being openly gay and a lot of people don’t know that’s the case,” Alonzo said.

While that theoretically could happen under Arizona law, the federal government has investigated complaints of discrimination nationwide and is taking businesses to court.

The commission has held that people facing discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation can make a claim of sex discrimination under federal law.

Angela Hughey, president of One Community, a seven-year-old organization that is helping to push the non-discrimination message, said such a policy is good for business and the right thing to do.

Hughey said more than 1,200 businesses and organizations have taken the unity pledge that says all Arizona employees, residents and consumers deserve equal protection.

She said the organization holds workplace conferences, makes presentations in board rooms to organizations and businesses that are considering adopting their own non-discrimination policies, and meets with elected officials.

“We’d like to say a lot of times that we’re myth busters and our job is to re-educate three out of four Arizonans who mistakenly believe Arizona truly is open for business to everyone. We know we can get there but we have to educate folks one by one and city by city,” Hughey said.

The post No action by lawmakers, but gay rights activists continue fight against discrimination first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times.

An olive branch of sorts being offered to the gay community by the Mormon Church has advocates on the extremes of both sides here saying there may be grounds for compromise.

Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, told Capitol Media Services she is willing to consider a proposal offered by church elders to expand civil rights laws to protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered individuals from discrimination.

And Catherine Alonzo, co-chair of the board of Equality Arizona, said her organization might be able to accept the other half of what the church wants in return: some form of protection for people who claim a religious reason for being exempt from the law.

But a chasm remains between the two sides, with Herrod contending there is no evidence of a problem and Alonzo questioning why anyone should be allowed to discriminate.

The debate is especially important in Arizona where lawmakers last year approved legislation expanding the right of individuals and businesses to claim their sincerely held religious beliefs entitle them refuse service to some.

That measure was vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer who called the measure a solution in search of a problem. But her action also came after intense lobbying by the business community concerned, at least in part, about negative publicity ahead of this year’s Super Bowl.

And while no one has resurrected the proposal this session, a repeat appearance is possible now that the big game is over and the national media and tourists are all gone.

What changed since last year is the statement this past week by Jeffrey Holland, an elder in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, saying the church will back expansion of existing laws that prohibit discrimination in housing, employment and even the right to be served in hotels and restaurants.

In Arizona, those laws now protect people based on “race, color, religion, sex, age or national origin.” The closest Arizona came to expanding the list came in 2001 when Sen. Elaine Richardson, D-Tucson, got the Senate, then divided evenly between Democrats and Republicans, to approve changing the law. But the House refused to even give the measure a hearing.

Herrod and her organization have been at the forefront of opposition, contending such a law would amount to providing “special protections,” a phrase she repeated when asked about the LDS proposal.

But Herrod said she’s willing to look at any proposal if it also expands religious exemptions for businesses and individuals.

“The devil’s in the details,” she said.

Church officials had no specific language of the breadth of the exemption they want from having to comply with the laws. Instead, Dallin Oaks, another elder, said the church wants the laws to protect “vital religious freedoms for individuals, families, church and other faith groups.”

Alonzo, whose organization has lobbied for expanded civil rights protections for years, said just the offer is a huge step.

“The thing that was significant about what happened, what came out of the Mormon Church, was the recognition that discrimination exists and that it is necessary that there be protections against discrimination,” she said.

“What I think needs to happen is an ongoing dialog,” she said. She called the announcement “a really important first step in that ongoing dialog, educating and then coming up with a solution that protects against the discrimination that happens.”

But sticking points remain, including Herrod’s contention that gays do not need — and are not entitled — to the same legal protections as blacks, women and Hindus.

“Where’s the evidence?” she said, calling expansion of civil rights laws “unnecessary business regulation.”

That’s not a new contention. In a 2008 interview, with Capitol Media Services, Herrod said applying anti-discrimination laws to gays would protect individuals “on the basis of behavior.”

She said most categories in the anti-discrimination laws, like race, sex and age, are “immutable characteristics” individuals are powerless to change. Herrod does not believe that to be the case with sexual orientation.
Herrod acknowledged that people can change their religion. But she said the fact that religion is specifically protected by the First Amendment entitles people to be free from discrimination because of their choices of whom or how to worship.

The question of conflicts between law and religion are not new.

Existing state and federal laws already say people can use their religious beliefs to avoid government regulations if they can show those rules or laws substantially burden the ability to exercise those beliefs. But they also say those beliefs do not trump regulations where there is a “compelling government interest” and where those rules are the least restrictive means of furthering that interest.
SB 1062 sought to extend that to situations where the government is not involved, such as what happened in New Mexico, where a gay couple successfully sued a photographer who refused to take pictures at their wedding.

What made last year’s debate curious is that SB 1062 did not affect the fact that in Arizona it has always been legal to discriminate against gays. And nothing in the legislation changed that.

But the LGBT community mobilized a public relations effort that alarmed the business community. And the resultant publicity even convinced some senators who had voted for the bill to ask Brewer for a veto.

Herrod said she remains convinced that, gay rights or not, some protections are needed for people based on their “conscience or religious beliefs.”

Alonzo, for her part, remains skeptical.

“We respect the religious freedom of every American,” she said. “But there’s no grounds on which anybody should be discriminated against because of who they are.”

And what of a religious exemption in exchange for expanded anti-discrimination laws?

“We can’t really have a discussion about hypothetical things until there is a specific policy on the table,” Alonzo said.

Some of the discussion about the right to refuse to follow laws already has been taken out of the hands of lawmakers.

Last year the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Hobby Lobby, a family-held company, ruling it does not have to comply with federal rules requiring employers to provide insurance coverage for certain contraceptives for their employees.

In the 5-4 decision the justices said that “closely held” corporations can claim the protections of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The existing state law is closely modeled after that.

The post Mormon Church offers civil rights protection to gay community first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times.