The 2020 legislative season across the country began with a coordinated attack on trans youth. Arizona is no exception. Last week, Senator Nancy Barto and Cathi Herrod of the Center for Arizona Policy pushed through a bill that would require Arizona schools to discriminate against trans student athletes, HB2706.

 

As business and community leaders in Arizona, we know that sports teach children the focus, dedication, and leadership that will make them successful adults. If we want Arizona to thrive for decades to come, we must insist on fairness in Arizona schools so that every child can develop into the dedicated and focused leaders who will have the strength of character to lead our state into the future. 

 

This bill is not reflective of Arizona values. Arizonans of every walk of life know that when students have the opportunity to participate in school sports, they are more likely to develop the strength of character and the social connections that will make them successful adults. Playing sports provides student athletes with important lessons about leadership, self-discipline, success, and failure—as well as the joy and shared excitement of being part of a team. Every student that wants to compete and become a student athlete, should have the same opportunity to try out and make the team, if they work hard enough and earn it. To prevent talented student athletes from even having the opportunity to try out for a team is discriminatory and wrong. 

 

In Arizona we don’t tolerate adults bullying, picking on, and singling out children for harassment. To bully and harass children is wrong, shameful, and should not be accepted from our leaders or from special interest groups like the Center for Arizona Policy.

 

We believe that all children should be valued and have the same opportunity to achieve in our schools. Schools in Arizona and across the country know that transgender students, like any student, thrive when they are treated with dignity and have the same opportunities to achieve and succeed as cisgender students. It would be wrong and against our values as Arizonans for schools to force any student to identify with a gender that is not affirming of that student’s experience. To not treat trans girls and boys like the girls and boys they are would be deeply hurtful to the student and would disrupt the school’s policy of treating all kids fairly. 

 

Being excluded from sports can be devastating to already vulnerable transgender youth, given that sports can play an invaluable role in a students’ physical, social, and emotional well-being. Our laws should protect transgender youth, not encourage discrimination against them. 

 

We believe that all girls, all boys, and all students should be able to play sports in Arizona schools. Fairness is one of the most important values a child can learn from the adults in their lives. We will teach Arizona’s children that we believe in fairness for all people, by fighting for the right of every student to participate in the entire school day including sports.

 

We ask you, as Arizona state legislators, to vote against HB2706 and stand up for all Arizona students.