Candidates across Arizona campaigning against LGBTQ- affirming policies

Homophobic and transphobic language—such as calling queer people
“groomers” or “pedophiles”—has become common at school board meetings.
But it’s also pervaded candidates’ platforms looking to fill a space on
local governing school boards in the upcoming Nov. 5 election. 

Multiple
candidates across the state running for governing board seats have
platformed false claims against school districts, such as “sexualizing”
children or claiming schools are promoting “gender ideology,” a
catchphrase that has become popular among far-right conservative circles
after schools implemented gender-affirming guidelines for LGBTQ+
students in the past few years. 

In 2022 amongst school board
races statewide, there were at least 44 anti-LGBTQ+ candidates who ran
on or aligned with a platform that would eliminate “gender ideology”
from schools. Many of those candidates lost their races, but a swell of
LGBTQ+ scapegoating by conservative groups has made the issue a central
pillar in an increased number of Republican candidates’ platforms this
year. 

It’s unclear how many across the state are currently running on “gender ideology” as an issue, but LOOKOUT
has identified at least 58 candidates across the state who—if they were
to win—have been endorsed by anti-LGBTQ+ groups and would have the
ability to change or have an influence on what Arizona’s roughly 1.6 million residents under the age of 18 are taught in public schools. 

The public figures LOOKOUT identified include Maricopa County School Superintendent candidate Shelly Boggs—who on her campaign website rails against diversity, equity, and inclusion—Sharon Benson, a candidate for Mesa Unified Governing School Board who has the endorsement of Boggs, and Esteban Flores, a candidate for Tucson Unified Governing School Board whose website claims the school district is “sexualizing” students through transgender issues. 

The
candidates are also listed on a conservative voter guide created by
Arizona Women of Action PAC, a local far-right organizing group that
endorsed the candidates on the basis of their platforms to have
“age-appropriate books” in schools as well as be “free from ideology.”

“They want these kids to feel bad about themselves, and that’s why
they’re spouting all of this rhetoric,” said Tyler Kowch, communications
manager at Save Our Schools Arizona, a nonpartisan volunteer-based
organization focused on supporting public education. “[They get] caught
up in this rhetoric of fear and trying to handle grievances, and create
‘others’ as a means of getting reelected or getting elected.”

Kowch points to groups like Arizona-based Turning Point USA and Moms for Liberty that groups like GLAAD say actively promote discrimination in classrooms,
and have highlighted candidates running on exclusionary LGBTQ+
campaigns through their social media accounts, various trainings, and
online events. 

“They’re very, very influential,” Kowch said.

Conservative politicians have in the past falsely conflated queer
people with pedophiles, have said they want to eliminate diversity,
equity, and inclusion training and programs, and made harmful jokes
about putting kitty litter in classrooms for students who want to
identify as cats—a claim that was debunked. 

Those
issues are manufactured, said Kowch, and are escalating at the local
level, specifically around what books are being taught inside schools. 

Recently in Gilbert, for example, a Higley High School teacher
was called a ‘groomer’ by one of her student’s parents because she
chose to include a book in her class’s college-level curriculum that
includes Asian, Arab, African, and Native American literature. That
teacher is currently under police investigation. 

While most of the candidates LOOKOUT
identified are primarily down-ballot races, education advocates, LGBTQ+
rights experts, and Democrats argue that the problem is being seeded
from the top, specifically State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Tom Horne. 

Horne has a history of supporting “anti-woke” education and the state ban on transgender female students playing in youth sports. Last year, he said Arizona schools shouldn’t let trans kids use their preferred bathroom and was the keynote speaker at a Moms for Liberty event in Mesa. In January this year, he barred staff from putting pronouns in their emails and then removed resources for LGBTQ+ students from the state education department’s website.

“Tom Horne’s rhetoric, to me, sounds like he’s in favor of bullying,
maybe even in favor of teaching children to bully others,” said Mitzi
Epstein, a candidate running for Senate in LD12. “He is a dangerous
person to be in charge of schools.”

Epstein said that while Horne’s politics have received ample coverage, down-ballot candidates like the ones LOOKOUT identified aren’t scrutinized as much. 

She
pointed to her opponent this year in the LD12 Senate race, Cara Vicini,
who has in the past said she doesn’t believe there are multiple
genders. During the online Clean Elections Commission debate between
Vicini and Epstein, which was moderated by LOOKOUT
Editor-in-Chief Joseph Darius Jaafari, Vicini claimed without evidence
that schools in her district were indoctrinating children with “gender
ideology.”

“People think that their own life experience is the
only one that is real, but there’s a whole lot of different life
experiences out there that, really, people need to understand better
about the entirety of the LGBTQ+ community,” Epstein said.

Vicini and Horne did not respond to LOOKOUT for comment. 

That
naivety is something Mikah Dyer, a candidate running for a seat on the
Peoria Unified School Board, has seen firsthand as he campaigned this
season.

Since he announced running last August, he estimated he and his team
knocked on roughly 17,000 doors to canvass, with people disbelieving
what their kids are learning in public school, or ignoring his attempts
to teach them about a community different from theirs.

“I’ll knock on a door sometimes and people are very stuck, like…
‘Yep, they’re indoctrinating my kids.’ Or ‘Yep, they should ban these
books,’” Dyer said. “Well, I’ve been in the school for the past 13
years, from kindergarten to 12th grade. That’s not happening.”

He
said school board candidates this year are getting away with using
anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric for political gain and not working to fix policy. 

“Strong
schools equates to a strong economy, and we all want to prepare the
next generation of our workforce to be productive members of our
society,” Dyer said, adding that school boards should be more
nonpartisan. “I truly believe in the idea of community schools and
public education being the bedrock for democracy.”

Marisol Garcia,
president of the Arizona Education Association, a pro-education
candidacy group said the list of candidates running on an anti-LGBTQ+
platform are not only “loud,” but also “stoke fear” by scapegoating
queer people. 

“Their interest is trying to demonize a small group
to make people feel safer instead of coming up with policy solutions,”
she said, adding that she has witnessed people leave hearings and
meetings crying. 

The way these politicians use offensive language
is akin to lighting a fire, Garcia said, because it hurts the people
who are under it, but similar-minded people see it is commendable. And
that ‘lighting a fire’ technique used by extreme politicians “seems to
be working with their base.”

That makes it even more important for voters to pay keen attention to who they vote for in this year’s election.

“It’s
very clear which politicians are interested in doing good… for our
community and those that just want to be politicians,” she said, urging
people to vote for candidates “interested in finding a solution and not
stoking fear.”