Arizona congressman, state schools superintendent support ban on teaching gender ideology

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(The Center Square) - An Arizona congressman and the state's superintendent of public instruction support a House-approved bill that prohibits the teaching of gender ideology in public schools.

In May, the U.S. House passed the Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act by a vote of 217 to 198, with eight Democrats joining Republicans.

The bill is now being deliberated in the U.S. Senate. Under the legislation, public elementary and middle schools that receive federal funding would not be allowed to teach gender ideology.

U.S. Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Surprise, who voted for the bill, said he knows of “countless Arizona parents and grandparents who are fed up with what’s happening in their children’s classrooms — age-inappropriate gender ideology lessons that are leaving kids confused and families sidelined.”

“Some of these stories are coming out of the primary grades. These aren’t exaggerations — they’re real, they’re heartbreaking, and they’re happening right here in our communities. Parents know best, and their voices will be heard,” Hamadeh told The Center Square, answering questions via email.

The definition used for gender ideology in the bill is the same one used in President Donald Trump’s executive order that recognizes only two sexes.

Trump’s order defines gender ideology as a “biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa, and requiring all institutions of society to regard this false claim as true.”

In addition to the ban on teaching gender ideology, the legislation requires public elementary and middle schools that receive federal funding to obtain parental permission before minors change their genders.

Parents would need to sign off on their children having the school change their gender on school records, the use of new pronouns and a preferred name at school and the use of a different bathroom and locker room.

The bill’s policies do not apply to high school students.

According to Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, the bill would prevent gender ideology from being taught in Arizona classrooms.

Horne, a Republican, called the legislation a “valuable bill.”

“You can imagine as a parent how upset you’d be if you found out your child changed gender identity without telling you and the school facilitated it. That would be an outrage,” he told The Center Square.

Horne said there is no way of officially knowing how big of a problem gender ideology being taught in classrooms is in Arizona.

The Arizona Department of Education does not keep statistics on the topic, Horne said.

According to Hamadeh, classrooms have “completely abandoned” common sense.

“I’d rather see our teachers properly trained on what belongs in a classroom and what doesn’t, but based on what I’m hearing from Arizona families, that’s not happening,” he said. “What we’re getting is indoctrination, not education. Our kids deserve better, and this bill delivers it.”

“Arizonans are united: Get radical gender ideology out of the classroom, put parents back in charge, and let our children actually learn,” the representative added.

Horne told The Center Square that the bill would not impact the rights of public school teachers.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled a teacher’s First Amendment rights are not violated by being required to follow a school’s curriculum, he noted.

A teacher is “being paid to do a job, and they don’t have the right to do anything they want in the classroom,” Horne explained.

The Center Square reached out to the Arizona Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, but did not hear back before press time.