What is a woman? Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoes biological definition of ‘woman’ in state law

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a bill to codify the meaning of “woman” in state law, becoming the second female Democratic governor to nix such legislation over concerns about transgender rights.

Senate Bill 1628, which passed both chambers without Democratic votes, would have provided biologically based definitions for terms such as “woman” and “man,” preventing state bureaucrats and judges from expanding their meaning to include people who identify as a different sex.

“As I have said time and time again, I will not sign a bill that attacks Arizonans,” the Democratic governor said Tuesday in her terse veto message.

Last year, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed a Women’s Bill of Rights, but her veto was overridden by the Republican-controlled state legislature.

Arizona Republicans lack the two-thirds majorities needed in the House and Senate to override the veto, meaning that in all likelihood the Arizona Women’s Bill of Rights is dead for the 2024 legislative session.

The bill was one of 13 vetoed Tuesday by Ms. Hobbs, including a measure that would have allowed the Ten Commandments to be posted and read aloud in public schools. She said she had “serious concerns about the constitutionality of this legislation.”

Republicans blasted the governor’s veto of SB 1628, accusing Democrats of “showing their irresponsible disregard for the safety and well-being of women and girls in our state by killing the Arizona Women’s Bill of Rights.”

“Our daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and neighbors are growing up in a dangerous time where they are living with an increased risk of being victimized in public bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms because Democrats are now welcoming biological males into what used to be traditionally safe, single-sex spaces,” Senate President Warren Petersen said in a statement.

Republican state Sen. Sine Kerr, the bill’s sponsor, cited the risks to female athletes playing against transgender athletes.

“We’ve seen far too many examples of girls and women physically injured, relegated to the bench, and bumped off the winner’s podium by males competing as females,” said Ms. Kerr. “The madness needs to stop. Democrats have launched an attack against biological females.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Katie Hobbs Kills Commonsense Bill Protecting Women and Girls from Biological Males Posing as Females and Invading Their Private Spaces pic.twitter.com/BbNFdHEVFr

— AZSenateRepublicans (@AZSenateGOP) April 16, 2024

Those opposing SB 1628 included the Human Rights Campaign, which called it “an LGBTQ+ Erasure Act that aims to strip away legal protections for LGBTQ+ Arizonans. It’s all part of a dangerous agenda to erase our community nationally.”

Five states — Kansas, Idaho, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Nebraska — have approved bills defining “woman” in state law based on the Women’s Bill of Rights, model legislation drafted by the Independent Women’s Voice and the Women’s Liberation Front.

Christy Narsi, an Arizona native and national chapter director for the Independent Women’s Network, called the governor’s veto ironic.

“Ironically, despite being a woman, Gov. Hobbs refuses to acknowledge that women are adult, human, females — as commonly understood for millennia — and has no interest in advancing privacy, safety, and equal opportunity for the 3.6 million Arizonan women,” said Ms. Narsi.

Swimmer Riley Gaines, an advocate for single-sex sports, quipped on X: “Who woulda guessed? Women, yet again, proving to be our own worst enemy.”