Arizona Democrats accuse GOP lawmakers of anti-gay discrimination over blocked license plate

Arizona drivers can choose from over 100 specialty license plates benefitting a wide range of nonprofits and special interests, but Democratic lawmakers say one group is being left out due to anti-gay discrimination.

In Arizona, drivers can purchase those speciality plates for $25, with $17 of that fee going toward the organization that sponsored the design.

But, in order to benefit from those plates, organizations must first convince lawmakers to pass legislation to create them. Those laws require a sponsoring organization to come up with $32,000 to create the plates before they can benefit from ongoing plate fees.

Every year, lawmakers run dozens of bills in an attempt to benefit their preferred causes.

There are currently 114 specialty plates available through the Arizona Department of Transportation, and lawmakers are preparing to create over a dozen more.

Lawmakers just sent Gov. Katie Hobbs a bill that would benefit the Arizona Space Commission. And a separate piece of legislation working its way through the Arizona Senate would authorize 22 more plates for a whole host of causes, from skin cancer prevention to the Grand Canyon and “elk and other wildlife.”

What’s missing?

For years, Rep. Lorena Austin (D-Mesa) has backed legislation to create a “community college access and success” plate to raise money for a nonprofit organization that provides scholarships to students who identify as “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, questioning or asexual.”

“It’s a bill that’s been run for the past few years, and it’s the only bill for a license plate that has not received a hearing,” said Austin, Arizona’s first openly non-binary lawmaker.

For a bill to move through the legislative process, it must first receive a hearing in a committee in the Arizona House or Senate. It is not uncommon for Republicans who control the legislature to block legislation sponsored by the other party, with only a small number of Democratic bills advancing in most years.

But Austin claimed that something more than partisan politics is at play, accusing Republicans of engaging in “discrimination.”

She argued that’s why the community college bill wasn’t included in House Bill 2127, which is the legislation moving through the Senate that would create nearly two dozen new plates.

“For the past three, four years now, we’ve tried to run a bill for Maricopa County Community College scholarships, and it continues to be denied because the source of the funding comes from an LGBTQ-supporting organization,” said Austin, a former Mesa Community College student body president. “And I was told that because it comes from a supporting LGBTQ+ organization, it would not be allowed to be heard.”

HB 2127 was originally written to create one plate to honor veterans who received the Bronze Star Medal but was later amended to include other plates backed by both Republicans and Democrats, including public education, law enforcement and recycling.

Rep. Neal Carter (R-San Tan Valley), who sponsored HB 2127, did not provide much information about why the LGBTQ plate was left out.

“I ran one of them. There were several others included on it, and I believe that it mirrors the Senate,” Carter said on the House floor.

'We all know why'

But Rep. Betty Villegas (D-Tucson), who sponsored this year’s version of the community college plate bill, backed Austin’s account.

Unlike past versions of the bill, Villegas’ version did not explicitly state the plate would benefit the LGBTQ community. Instead, it would benefit an organization that helps “college-bound persons in need” or improves “the quality of life of persons attending institutions of higher learning in this state.”

Austin confirmed the bill was still intended to benefit Equality Maricopa, a nonprofit supporting LGBTQIA+ students in the Maricopa County Community College District.

Villegas accused Senate Republicans of blocking the inclusion of her bill, though she acknowledged that no one explicitly stated it was due to connections to LGBTQ-supporting groups.

“We all know it. We all know why,” she said.

Villegas said the decision not to include her bill in the larger plate legislation coincided with Republicans asking about what group would sponsor the community college plates.

“The only giveaway is they wanted to know who the nonprofit was,” Villegas said.

She claimed that’s when it was pulled from consideration.

Senate President Warren Petersen and Sen. David Farnsworth, who chairs the transportation committee, did not respond to a request for comment about the allegations.

A spokesman for Gov. Katie Hobbs also declined to weigh in on the issue.