LGBTQ Families Like Mine Are Breathing Easier This Pride Month Thanks to Katie Hobbs

Anthony Sheedy

On May 19, Gov. Katie Hobbs took a stand to protect transgender and nonbinary students across Arizona by vetoing Senate Bill 1001. The measure would have forced school districts and their employees to refer to our trans and nonbinary students with pronouns that do not correspond with their own gender identity.

The veto sends a simple and direct message that every Arizonan has the universal right to flourish and grow in your truth, to become who you choose to be and the right to love your life.

Hobbs’ presence on the 9th Floor has impacted our community enormously. Throughout numerous recent legislative sessions, our community and allies have tirelessly fought against legislation that directly aimed to undermine the rights and harm the lives of LGBTQIA+ Arizonans. I have spent days at the Capitol with my own child, speaking at legislative sessions and to our lawmakers with the goal of normalizing our LGBTQIA+ children’s lives.

As a parent of a transgender child, the veto of SB1001 has brought my family amazing joy in the future of our great state. Our community was and is one that is bound together by love, a celebration of our diversity, and the conviction that everyone deserves the right to live their life with dignity.

Now, witnessing our state’s highest office leading the nation with an example of what it means to show true support and solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community, along with so many others in Arizona’s legislature, brings me a renewed sense of optimism.

While our work is not over and there is still a responsibility of every American to challenge harmful messages that only hope to create separation, knowing that the governor stands with us and for our rights, we no longer live in fear that discriminatory laws could be passed and enacted.

I have spent days at the Capitol with my own child, speaking at legislative sessions and to our lawmakers with the goal of normalizing our LGBTQIA+ children’s lives.

This newfound sense of hope and energy has inspired us to believe that Arizona can become what it always has been and will continue to be: a community where we can live in celebration of our differences, love and care for our neighbors, and support each other as we would want them to support us.

We are so grateful to Governor Hobbs, both for her veto of this harmful bill and for what it represents to our community and allies. Eleven more bills currently threaten the safety of transgender and nonbinary individuals in the Arizona legislature, but with the governor’s effort in support of our families and neighbors in the LGBTQIA+ community, I know we are working together to create the world I want my child to grow up in.

Anthony Sheedy is the owner of a few local businesses in the Phoenix, Arizona area. This commentary is republished from Arizona Mirror under a Creative Commons license.