Republican House Speaker Ben Toma reportedly banned House Democrats from using conference rooms in the House after revealing anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and calling the drag story hour hosted by the LGBTQ+ legislative caucus—“radical activism and perverse ideology.”
Toma targeted much of his disdain toward Mesa Democrat, Lorena Austin, the state’s first non-binary and gender conforming legislator who hosted the event. “Use of House facilities for radical activism to promote dangerously perverse ideology will not be tolerated while I am Speaker,” Toma said in a social media post.
Toma claims his office was misled about the conference room reservation use.
Democrats, fired back at Toma.
House Minority Whip Nancy Gutierrez insisted that Austin was up front in reserving the room.
“No one was misled about scheduling this event,” the Tucson Democrat said in a prepared statement. “It was described as a drag story hour when Rep. Austin’s assistant called to reserve the room.”
Gutierrez said there was nothing “perverse” about it.
The move comes amid a session that has highlighted “culture war” issues, including various efforts by Republican lawmakers to curb certain rights of transgender individuals.
“This is the people’s House, and that includes the LGBTQ+ community, whether my colleagues on the other side of the aisle like that or not,” Austin said in a prepared statement. “It is nothing short of ridiculous that I have been described as dishonest, deceitful and perverse and have been subjected to calls for punishment and expulsion.”
Austin described the event as educational and part of the mission of the Arizona LGBTQ Legislative Caucus.
“We were completely transparent when we reserved the room, and the content was not, or should not be, controversial,” she said. And Austin, who uses the pronouns “she” and “her” and describes herself as gender nonconforming, said only about 20 people attended, all of whom were adults.
“It was educational and completely within the mission of our LGTBQ+ Caucus,” she said. “I will never apologize for teaching people to be inclusive, to accept others as they are, and to stand up to hate and bigotry.”
