A Arizona state representative faces an ethical charge after comparing transgender people to farm animals during a Wednesday committee hearing.
The trial was for House Bill 2725, which requires that state identification documents contain only a male or female gender marker. The bill bans non-binary people, who are not exclusively male or female, gender-neutral X-markers on their IDs, although Arizona law does not currently allow it.
State Representative John Fillmore, the sponsor’s bill, said during the trial that he ‘proposes this bill only to provide clarity in government documents and hopes to avoid the whole gender identity issue of gender dysphoria’, according to a video of the trial. .
“What will happen if someone wakes up one day and wants to go to an extreme point and identify as a chicken or something because they are crying out loud,” he added. “Where do we draw the line?”
Megan Mogan, the mother of a 15-year-old non-binary child and testified against the bill on Wednesday, said Fillmore’s remark was dehumanizing.
“I do not think you have to be the parent of a non-binary person, you can just be the parent of anyone. If someone dehumanizes your child, that is one of the worst possible feelings you can have,” Mogan said. told NBC News. on Friday.
She tweeted after the trial: “Still trembling after an elected IDP state representative compared my non-binary child to just a scavenger.”
Riley Behrens, a graduate student at Harvard University who was previously a Democratic campaigner in Arizona, calls Fillmore’s ‘chicken meat’ ‘disgusting’.
“We were all just shocked,” said Behrens, who said he sent a few members of the Democratic House during the trial. ‘It’s heartbreaking to be in a room and to hear people talking about our community like that. … This is not what we expect from an elected official and should not be tolerated. ‘
Behrens said he left the Capitol Wednesday around 1 p.m., and returned at 4:45 p.m. with a notarized ethical charge against Fillmore.
“I wanted to make a statement,” Behrens said. “You will not say it without some kind of consequences or public statement.”
Andrew Wilder, director of communications for the Arizona House Republican Majority Caucus, shared a statement with NBC News on behalf of Fillmore on Friday.
“The complaint is completely without merit, and it is quite unfortunate that some opponents of the bill characterized my remarks unfairly and grossly incorrectly during the hearing on Wednesday,” the statement read. “I invite people to listen to my real remarks, which do not claim the corresponding version of criticism.”
On Saturday morning, however, Fillmore sent an e-mail directly to NBC News, in which he called the situation “stupid and dangerous” and words “consequences”.
“I believe this whole conversation is just childishly stupid,” he wrote. “If someone wants to change the meaning of words because of their ‘feelings’, how can a society have a reasonable discussion about anything if, for example, they feel that the word’ blue ‘is’ red’ to them, and then add the word ‘ green ‘to the color’ yellow ‘, now try to have an intelligent conversation with an oil artist. ‘
Behrens also filed a second complaint against Republican Rep. Kevin Payne in which Behrens alleges that Payne “continuously disrupted public evidence.” During Mogan’s testimony about her child, Behrens claims that Payne said, “Do not know who it is?”
“Referring to someone as’ it ‘, especially a child, is discriminatory and cannot be tolerated,” Behrens’ complaint, shared with NBC News, said. “Through his actions, Representative Payne has acted that endangers the character of himself, the integrity of the Arizona State House of Representatives and shows a lack of respect for members of the LGBTQ + community.”
Wilder told NBC News in an email: “Representative Payne said he did not recall saying anything like what was alleged in the complaint, and that such words were not heard by him in the committee’s video. – an important fact that the complainant admitted to the Arizona Mirror on Thursday. “
Behrens said Payne’s comments could not be heard in the trial video because it was made while Mogan was testifying, but Behrens said he heard it firsthand because he was sitting about 10 yards from Payne during the trial.
Bridget Sharpe, Arizona’s state director for the Human Rights Campaign, said she did not think Fillmore understood the seriousness of what he said, or the impact the bill would have on non-binary people.
“I really do not think he understands what this means for non-binary Arizonans because he does not believe that non-binary is a choice,” Sharpe said. “It’s very difficult to take in. I think it was very offensive. I was upset, mostly for the mothers who were in the Zoom room, and [Mogan] took the time to be vulnerable and witness, only to comply with those comments. ”
Sharpe said she and a few other attorneys reached out to Fillmore’s office to instruct him on the consequences of his statement and the bill, but that she received no response.
HB 2725 is unnecessary, Sharpe said, because Arizona law currently only allows people to use a male or female gender marker on their IDs. The bill “takes it a step further and writes it into a law that is much harder to change in line,” Sharpe said. “We believe it’s cruel, because at some point non-binary people should get a chance to have that X-gender marker on government documents, including things like their driver’s licenses.”
Nineteen states and the District of Columbia currently offer non-binary residents the option to use a gender-neutral ‘X’ on IDs, instead of an ‘M’ or ‘F’, according to Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank .
Sharpe said the Democratic state, Senator Rosanna Gabaldón, has tabled a bill in the last few sessions that would allow non-binary Arizonans to use an X-marker on their IDs, but ‘so many times such bills do not even get hearings, mainly because Republicans feel it is controversial, ”Sharpe said.
Gabaldón reintroduced the measure, Bill 1162, in January, but no trial has yet taken place.
Mogan said a gender-neutral ID option would relieve her child and others of ‘this constant threat of being out in public, of being heterosexual’, including those where they could be bullied or discriminated against.
“If you are free from the constant degree of anxiety, you can do other things like be a child, or be happy,” she said.
Sharpe said she is not sure if HB 2725 will succeed. It will next go to the House Rules Committee, and then it will move to the floor for discussion, which according to Sharpe could happen as early as next week.
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