Alex Gonzalez, Public News Service
It’s been just over two weeks since Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs issued two-pro LGBTQ+ executive orders which ensure gender-affirming care is covered by state health plans and prohibits state agencies from funding or supporting what is known as conversion therapy, the practice to alter same-sex attraction or someone’s gender expression, with the aim to promote heterosexuality and traditional gender norms.
Clayton Davenport, director of development and marketing for the Phoenix-based nonprofit one-n-ten, said the executive orders reaffirm health care decisions should not be politicized.
“This is a decision between an individual, a family and their provider,” Davenport contended. “This shouldn’t be up to local legislative bodies or really the general public to make decisions on behalf of an individual and their health care.”
Davenport emphasized the executive orders issued by Gov. Hobbs send a strong message to LGBTQ+ Arizonans they matter.
In a tweet, Sen. Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, president of the Senate, said “Instead of helping struggling Arizona families plagued by inflation, the governor just issued an order for taxpayers to cover the cost of elective, sex reassignment surgeries.”
The American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry have all taken clear stances against conversion therapy. Davenport called the practice “archaic.”
He added one-n-ten has been a part of a coalition of community leaders and organizations leading efforts to ban conversion therapy for minors in Arizona since 2018.
“With the governor signing this executive order, it really sends a strong message, not only in Arizona but really nationally that this abusive practice will no longer be tolerated,” Davenport stressed. “It is no longer acceptable.”
Davenport applauded leaders like Hobbs who he said are protecting the lives of the people they have been elected to govern.
This article originally appeared on Public News Service and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
