Anti-trans bills, executive orders reshaping campus life in Arizona
Cheyla Daverman
(Cronkite News) Lawmakers across the country are introducing anti-trans bills at increasing rates, with the number spiking more than 28 times higher, from 30 in 2018 to 859 bills this year.
These bills often make accessing health care and, some argue, the right to exist publicly difficult by creating legal red tape, which exacerbates mental and emotional distress.
Some members of queer communities report feeling more vulnerable to discrimination in public, at schools, in workplaces and within health care systems.
Currently, the Arizona Legislature is considering 11 anti-trans bills, in addition to two that have been vetoed. They would impact education, birth certificates, employment, health care and more.
In March, the Arizona Senate passed Senate Bill 1002 in its third reading. It’s now also passed through the House. For students under 18, written parental consent would be required for school district employees or independent contractors to call students by names that differ from the ones on their government-issued documents. They are also prohibited from using pronouns that don’t match the person’s biological sex.
At a Senate meeting on Feb. 20, Sen. John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills), who sponsored SB1002 and other bills like it, defended his vote, saying, “This bill was very simply about parents’ rights to direct the health care of their child.”
He cited gender dysphoria treatment as a reason for needing parental consent.
“Some of these children that are transgendered may suffer from a psychological condition called gender dysphoria, which causes depression and, in some students, suicidal thoughts,” Kavanagh said. “These students may be under treatment for this condition, which their parents arrange, and their health care provider may have said not to entertain the different pronouns. It would be dangerous and bad for your child.”
According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), treatment plans for people with gender dysphoria include judgment-free therapy with supported exploration of the person’s experiences and feelings of gender identity and expression. The APA states that attempts to force a transgender person to be cisgender, such as conversion therapy, “are considered unethical and have been linked to adverse mental health outcomes.”
Democratic senators spoke out against SB1002 during the meeting.
“There’s no other way to look at this. It was a law that was intended for trans people to be bullied,” Sen. Mitzi Epstein (D-Tempe) said.
Epstein reflected on her childhood experience and said she is thankful her parents didn’t need to write a note justifying her desire to be called Mitzi instead of her birth name, Denise.
“By the time I was in high school, I think I was old enough to know what name I wanted to be called,” Epstein said. “So this is a horrible travesty of freedom. I really dislike this bill. It hits me personally, and I vote no.”
Along with state and national bills, executive orders from President Donald Trump are affecting queer communities. One of them, titled Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness, was blocked by federal Judge Ana C. Reyes. She called the order “animus,” meaning intentionally discriminatory against transgender people in the military and having no legal basis.
The executive orders also hit DEI, pressuring universities and other academic institutions to change their resources to comply with Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order requiring government agencies to terminate all DEI “actions, initiatives, or programs” or face federal funding cuts.
Despite rallying club support and institutional efforts, many in the queer community at colleges and universities say they are scared and need validation that they are allowed to take up space.
On March 5, several Arizona State University social media accounts’ posts announced the university’s systematic removal of LGBTQIA+ mentions from their pages.
A search for trans-specific resources on the ASU website redirects to the Student Connection and Community page, with no mention of LGBTQ+ resources or clubs.
Access to Displayname Changes and other resources have been consolidated into a drop-down menu on the Rainbow Coalition (RainCo) at the bottom of the page under Campus Resources.
At the end of April, five Instagram accounts affiliated with the university reported that ASU’s Global Education resource page had removed the T in LGBT.
The page has a variety of guiding questions for queer students to consider when studying abroad. The reflection and research questions, along with things to keep in mind, are designed with students’ safety and comfort as they travel in mind.
The State Press later reported the letters were removed without the university’s permission and have been restored throughout the page to include the T in every mention of LGBTQIA.
Antonio Duran, the president of the, LGBTQ+ Faculty/Staff Association, acknowledged the negative ramifications of changes due to executive actions.
“We are seeing that an increasing amount of institutions are pulling their services specifically for trans and queer communities,” Duran said. “Whether that’s the closing of centers or the shutting down of staff positions that are specifically tasked with serving trans and queer communities.”
Cronkite News reached out to LGBTQIA+ students on campus and got no response. Duran said this is because students are feeling unsafe and vulnerable.
Duran said resources and facilities are still available to queer students and staff are doing their best. However, he said student organizations are better equipped to support one another as institutions comply with federal and state laws.
“Because many of the people who are in the staff positions are at-will employees, and they don’t have a strong sense of job security,” Duran said. “If they are told not to put on a specific event and they try to move forward with that, they do have the potential of losing their jobs. Student groups are frequently allowed a little bit more freedom in being able to put on events, and we’re seeing this at ASU, where I think students are starting to step up and try to mobilize.”
Alyssa-Leigh Alcantara, an ASU student and Planned Parenthood Generation Action officer, echoed the sentiment: “We’ve lost the school’s support, but we’re gaining more support from clubs. … People are fighting back way harder, but you can just tell it has a really sad undertone.”
Alcantara said the student queer community has worked overtime to support one another by hosting club meetings and private events to share information and resources safely.
ASU students participate in about 65 LGBTQ+ affiliated clubs, covering a wide range of interests and experiences, from Greek life and performance groups to lawyers and drag communities.
Qmunity, an ASU LGBTQ+ social club, hosts regular events that include movie and game nights, dances, professional workshops and drag shows.
An ASU student who attended the Astral Allure: Qmunity Drag Dinner on April 9 and whose identity Cronkite News agreed to withhold to protect their association within queer clubs said, “It’s a space for queer people to just exist and be queer and not have to feel queer about it to finally be normal and queer at the same time. There are so many other spaces for all different types of people.”
“Right now, I know a lot of queer students on campus are feeling really, really disenfranchised and really not taken care of,” said another queer ASU student. Cronkite News agreed to withhold the student’s identity.
Alcantara noted that the increase in hostility has exacerbated anxieties and made the campus feel less safe.
“It’s microaggressions. They are really small things, where on their own it doesn’t feel like that big of a deal, but in the grand scheme of it, it does feel like a big deal,” Alcantara said. “I go out with my queer friends, and I get text later, like, ‘Hey, do you think what we did at XYZ location was OK?’ And I was like, we sat down and did nothing. We are fine.”
Topics like sharing locations, setting aside funding and packing a go-bag are commonly discussed in the queer community. While being prepared is important, Alcantara acknowledged that many, particularly trans and non-binary individuals, feel worn down by the bombardment of coverage, from social media to family and club facilitators.
“A lot of the conversation is like, ‘Hey, I saw this. I don’t really want to talk. I don’t know what to do. I’m going to go shut off for a little bit,’” Alcantara said.
Despite the fear, frustration and anxiety, she stresses the importance of learning from the past and being inspired by the resilience of queer movements.
“I feel like with everything that’s been happening, it’s easy to forget how much queer people have persevered,” Alcantara said. “Learn your history, attend a few events, and watch a video on Marsha P. Johnson.”
The Trevor Project’s LGBTQIA+ Youth Specialized Services branch of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline faces uncertainty after a leaked Trump administration budget draft proposed cutting all funding for the hotline, as the Washington Post first reported.
The Trevor Project, the leading queer suicide prevention organization, estimates that more than 1.8 million LGBTQ youths ages13-24 seriously consider suicide each year in the United States.
On April 22, more than 400 officials from educational institutions signed a letter to the Trump administration denouncing “unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.” ASU did not sign the letter, nor did any of Arizona’s other public universities.