How misinformation drove debates over transgender students and bathrooms in Arizona

Daniel Trujillo, 16, and his mother Lizette, pose at the Let's Get Better Together Conference in Maricopa in October.

Arizona Republic/AZCentral.com
A member of the Chandler Unified School Board was certain that states banned transgender individuals from reversing any steps they took to change their gender identity. No state has done so.

A parents’ rights activist from north of Tucson said he knew of cases where males pretended they were transgender solely to enter a girls’ restroom. He could cite no examples.

A Republican activist living in the Estrella Mountain Ranch subdivision west of Phoenix said he’d read an article that children were undergoing sexual reassignment surgeries without parental permission. He couldn’t locate it.

These wrong or exaggerated beliefs fueled the fervor in the men to battle what they saw as an effort in Arizona public schools to encourage students to question their gender identity.

And as discussions about transgender students roiled school board meetings across the state in 2023 — particularly about bathroom use — political organizations and conservative think tanks further amplified or distorted fears. MORE