For Immediate Release
June 1st, 2022
Contact: Josselyn Berry| jberry@azdem.org
Start of Pride Month a Stark Reminder of GOP Candidates’ Bigoted Views on LGBTQ Community
PHOENIX— June 1st marks the beginning of Pride month, a time to celebrate LGBTQ folks across the country, while acknowledging the struggles and challenges they still face. It’s also a time to highlight the wave of homophobia and transphobia that the Republican gubernatorial field is pushing. It’s important to remember that the Republican-led Legislature passed two bills, signed by Governor Ducey, that banned transgender girls from playing on the sport team that aligns with their gender, and banned gender-affirming healthcare for children, which Karrin Taylor Robson wholeheartedly supported.
“These candidates have decided rather than run on real issues that matter to Arizonans, they’d prefer to punch down and attack one of the most vulnerable communities in our country today,” said Josselyn Berry, spokesperson for the Arizona Democratic Party. “This type of hateful rhetoric spewed at the LGBTQ+ community of all ages may work with right-wing trolls on Twitter, but it certainly won’t fly with the majority of Arizonans.”
Kari Lake – My Gay Friends Support My Homophobia
In February of this year, at a debate between Republican gubernatorial candidates, Kari Lake was asked if she would sign a hypothetical bill protecting gay and transgender people under Arizona discrimination law. Lake said she would not and justified her opposition by saying that her “gay friends” also opposed such protections.
During her virtual town hall on May 17th, she again brought up all her gay friends, saying “some of my gay friends are not crazy with the, it used to be just called gay and lesbian, now it’s LGBTQ plus and they keep adding to that.” At that same townhall she viciously attacked transgender Arizonans as well, saying “transgenderism” is being “pushed” in schools, and calling being transgender a “mental condition.” She didn’t end there and went on to say that being transgender is not a normal way to be. She referred to gender affirming care as “genital mutilation” and stated that doctors who provide such care to kids should have their medical license revoked.
Karrin Taylor Robson – I Too Don’t Like LGBTQ People
Not to be outdone by Kari Lake, Karrin Taylor Robson wants you to know she dislikes LGBTQ people just as much. In a press release she put out after Ducey signed the bills attacking transgender children, Robson said, “Arizona families are being torn apart” by transgender children and supports the discrimination against them. She also claimed that “Hollywood, the mainstream media and radical Left have gone mad” by supporting transgender Arizonans.
Matt Salmon – No LGBTQ Rights, Even For My Own Son
Matt Salmon has a track record of outright bigotry against the LGBTQ community. Matt Salmon and his wife supported anti-gay legislation over the years, including bans on same-sex marriage and denying gays the right to adopt. This record seems especially out-of-touch given that–– Salmon’s own son came out as gay when he was 14 years old. Back in 2010 his son, also named Matt Salmon, said his relationship with his parents was strained, he had left the LDS church in which he was raised, and his siblings even stopped speaking to him for a while. The younger Salmon said the pressure on him to be straight was so intense that he prayed, fasted, repented, and even attended conversion therapy, but still felt “doomed to Hell.” Even after his son came out, the congressman told the Washington Post in 2013 that while he loved and respected his son that “I don’t support the gay marriage.