Arizona’s Hobbs Signs LGBT Executive Order in 1st Official Act as Governor

The new Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs takes the oath of office in a ceremony at the state Capitol in Phoenix, on Jan. 2, 2023. Ross D. Franklin, Pool/AP Photo

In her first official act as Arizona’s governor, Democrat Katie Hobbs signed an executive order that seeks to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation in employment.

According to Executive Order 2023-01, more than 40 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals are reporting unfair treatment at work across the country, including not being hired, getting fired, or facing harassment based on their sexual orientation or sexual identity.

Using the powers of her office, Hobbs affirmed the state’s commitment to eliminating “all barriers to employment that artificially restrict hiring, promotion, recruitment, compensation, and tenure based on any status or characteristic that is not directly related to the performance of the job.”

The executive order instructs the Department of Administration to establish procedures to be used by all state agencies by April 1, to ensure that criteria such as sexual orientation and gender identity or expression don’t become factors for employment. Other considerations such as race, color, sex, religion, creed, marital status, age, veteran status, etc. also aren’t to be used as employment criteria.

“Today marks a new era in Arizona where my administration will work to build an Arizona for everyone," Hobbs said in a Jan. 3 statement. “I am proud to launch my First 100 Days Initiative which will center around tackling the biggest challenges facing Arizonans, like making our state more affordable and sustainable.

“It’s time for bold action and I feel ready as ever to get the job done. Let’s get to work.”

2003 Order

In 2003, an executive order issued by Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, provided protections for sexual orientation in employment. The protections remained in effect as the two subsequent Republican governors didn’t use their powers to rescind them.

Hobbs’s spokesperson Murphy Hebert believes there are potential loopholes in the 2003 order that are resolved in the one issued by the new governor.

“The order from 2003 arguably allowed the state to consider sexual orientation in hiring so long as it wasn’t the only reason for a hiring decision,” she said, according to KAWC. “The new executive order clarifies that discrimination based on sexual orientation is prohibited in all state hiring decisions.”

In addition, the order asks that nondiscrimination language and provisions be inserted into new contracts by the state. Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, doesn’t think that provision would be enforceable.

Protecting Faith Groups

SB 1399, which was approved in 2022, specifically prohibits the state from discriminating when it deals with faith-based foster care and adoption agencies with which it has contracts.

Hobbs’s order might potentially violate the “constitutional rights of faith-based agencies,” Herrod said, according to KAWC. In case of a conflict between the two laws, she believes that SB 1399 would take precedence over Hobbs’s executive order.

If the state refuses to enter into contracts with faith groups by insisting that these groups violate the religious discrimination provisions in Hobbs’s order, they might be held responsible for violating statutory and constitutional rights.

During a rally on Nov. 3, 2022, Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake had accused the Democrat of promoting gender transition surgery as Hobbs’s husband was a child therapist at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

“It makes sense now. Why would she push this stuff on our beautiful, perfect babies?” she said at the time. “And her husband is making money, brainwashing our children into thinking they can be a different gender than when they were born. It is sick. It is twisted—and we cannot let this monster anywhere near the government.”