Arizonaβs controversial βno promo homoβ law is on its way out.
Gov. Doug Ducey on Thursday signed legislation repealing sections of the state sex-education law that prohibit teachers from promoting homosexuality as a positive lifestyle. The same law also spells out that if schools teach about βsafe sexβ they cannot say there is any such possibility when it involves homosexual conduct.
His action came less than an hour after a 19-10 vote by the Senate; the House approved the same measure Wednesday on a 55-5 margin.
Sen. Tony Navarrete, D-Phoenix, noted he was going to school in the years when the law was being enforced.
βI really do believe that if this (repeal) was in the books and my educators and my district had the opportunity to teach on this issue or answer my questions as Iβm growing up and asking myself questions about my own personal identity, things could have been a lot different and I could have come out a lot sooner,β he told colleagues.
And Sen. Victoria Steele, D-Tucson, discussed the problems that her son, Nicholas Boynton-Steele, now 33, faced while he was going to Flowing Wells High School after he created the first gay-straight alliance.
βQuickly, he was abused, he was bullied at school,β she said. βIt became clear that it wasnβt OK to talk about being gay, to talk about who he was.β
But Sen. Eddie Farnsworth, R-Gilbert, said thereβs a good reason the law is on the books: medical evidence.
He said the law was in response to the spreading HIV and AIDS epidemic. And what was known at the time was not just that it was spread by sexual contact but that it was particularly prevalent in the gay community.
Farnsworth said about 38,700 people contract AIDS every year, with 67 percent of those among gay men.
βThatβs not castigating any group,β he said. βItβs just a fact.β
That, said Farnsworth, explains whatβs behind the law, then or now.
βThis was not in 1991, nor is it for those of us who are voting βno,β intended to be discriminatory,β he said. βItβs intended to reflect that a certain lifestyle actually lead to certain spread of this particular disease.β
βI certainly am sorry that people were abused,β he said. βThis bill has nothing to do with that.β
Farnsworth did not address arguments by proponents of the repeal that it will now allow teachers to provide instructions about safe sex for both gay and straight students.
Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake, said her opposition has nothing to do with questions of gay or straight. Allen said she doesnβt believe that schools are a proper venue to discuss sex education and AIDS, no matter whether homosexual or heterosexual.
The law officially will come off the books 90 days after the end of the legislative session, meaning likely sometime this summer.
Thursdayβs action is a victory of sorts for Sen. Martin Quezada, D-Glendale, who has sponsored identical legislation every year for the past four, only to be denied hearings by the Republican leadership that controls the House and Senate. And he said that this year would have been no different had Equality Arizona not filed suit last month challenging the law β and that Attorney General Mark Brnovich had said he would not defend it in court.
