Candidates across AZ are campaigning against LGBTQ+- affirming policies.

Homophobic and transphobic language—such as calling queer people “groomers” or “pedophiles”—has become common at school board meetings. But it’s also pervaded candidates’ platforms looking to fill a space on local governing school boards in the upcoming Nov. 5 election. 

Multiple candidates across the state running for governing board seats have platformed false claims against school districts, such as “sexualizing” children or claiming schools are promoting “gender ideology,” a catchphrase that has become popular among far-right conservative circles after schools implemented gender-affirming guidelines for LGBTQ+ students in the past few years. 

In 2022 amongst school board races statewide, there were at least 44 anti-LGBTQ+ candidates who ran on or aligned with a platform that would eliminate “gender ideology” from schools. Many of those candidates lost their races, but a swell of LGBTQ+ scapegoating by conservative groups has made the issue a central pillar in an increased number of Republican candidates’ platforms this year. 

It’s unclear how many across the state are currently running on “gender ideology” as an issue, but LOOKOUT has identified at least 58 candidates across the state who have been endorsed by anti-LGBTQ+ groups and—if they were to win—would have the ability to change or have an influence on what Arizona’s roughly 1.6 million residents under the age of 18 are taught in public schools. 

The public figures LOOKOUT identified include Maricopa County School Superintendent candidate Shelli Boggs—who on her campaign website rails against diversity, equity, and inclusion—Sharon Benson, a candidate for Mesa Unified Governing School Board who has the endorsement of Boggs, and Esteban Flores, a candidate for Tucson Unified Governing School Board whose website claims the school district is “sexualizing” students through transgender issues. 

The candidates are also listed on a conservative voter guide created by Arizona Women of Action PAC, a local far-right organizing group that endorsed the candidates on the basis of their platforms to have “age-appropriate books” in schools as well as be “free from ideology.” 

In a leaked web meeting, school board candidates doubled-down on anti-trans rhetoric.

The webcast, organized by Arizona Women of Action, is part of a campaign to use LGBTQ+ issues as a galvanizing issue this November.

LOOKOUTTori Gantz (she/they)

“They want these kids to feel bad about themselves, and that's why they're spouting all of this rhetoric,” said Tyler Kowch, communications manager at Save Our Schools Arizona, a nonpartisan volunteer-based organization focused on supporting public education. “[They get] caught up in this rhetoric of fear and trying to handle grievances, and create ‘others’ as a means of getting reelected or getting elected.”

Kowch points to groups like Arizona-based Turning Point USA and Moms for Liberty that LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations such as GLAAD say actively promote discrimination in classrooms, and have highlighted candidates running on exclusionary LGBTQ+ campaigns through their social media accounts, various trainings, and online events. 

“They’re very, very influential,” Kowch said.

Conservative politicians have in the past falsely conflated queer people with pedophiles, have said they want to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion training and programs, and made harmful jokes about putting kitty litter in classrooms for students who want to identify as cats—a claim that was debunked. 

Those issues are manufactured, said Kowch, and are escalating at the local level, specifically around what books are being taught inside schools. 

Recently in Gilbert, for example, a Higley High School teacher was called a ‘groomer’ by one of her student’s parents because she chose to include a book in her class’s college-level curriculum that includes Asian, Arab, African, and Native American literature. That teacher is currently under police investigation. 

While most of the candidates LOOKOUT identified are primarily down-ballot races, education advocates, LGBTQ+ rights experts, and Democrats argue that the problem is being seeded from the top, specifically State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne. 

Horne has a history of supporting “anti-woke” education and the state ban on transgender female students playing in youth sports. Last year, he said Arizona schools shouldn’t let trans kids use their preferred bathroom and was the keynote speaker at a Moms for Liberty event in Mesa. In January this year, he barred staff from putting pronouns in their emails and then removed resources for LGBTQ+ students from the state education department's website.

State education department bars gender identifiers for staff

A leaked email to LOOKOUT shows that the state’s top education officials are attempting to single out trans and nonbinary staff by not allowing gender markers in email signatures.

LOOKOUTJoseph Darius Jaafari (he/him)

“Tom Horne’s rhetoric, to me, sounds like he's in favor of bullying, maybe even in favor of teaching children to bully others,” said Mitzi Epstein, a candidate running for Senate in LD12. “He is a dangerous person to be in charge of schools.”

Epstein said that while Horne’s politics have received ample coverage, down-ballot candidates like the ones LOOKOUT identified aren’t scrutinized as much. 

She pointed to her opponent this year in the LD12 Senate race, Cara Vicini, who has in the past said she doesn’t believe there are multiple genders. During the online Clean Elections Commission debate between Vicini and Epstein, which was moderated by LOOKOUT Editor-in-Chief Joseph Darius Jaafari, Vicini claimed without evidence that schools in her district were indoctrinating children with “gender ideology.”

“People think that their own life experience is the only one that is real, but there's a whole lot of different life experiences out there that, really, people need to understand better about the entirety of the LGBTQ+ community,” Epstein said.

Vicini and Horne did not respond to LOOKOUT for comment. 

That naivety is something Mikah Dyer, a candidate running for a seat on the Peoria Unified School Board, has seen firsthand as he campaigned this season.

Since he announced running last August, he estimated he and his team knocked on roughly 17,000 doors to canvass, with people disbelieving what their kids are learning in public school, or ignoring his attempts to teach them about a community different from theirs.

“I’ll knock on a door sometimes and people are very stuck, like… ‘Yep, they’re indoctrinating my kids.’ Or ‘Yep, they should ban these books,’” Dyer said. “Well, I’ve been in the school for the past 13 years, from kindergarten to 12th grade. That’s not happening.”

He said school board candidates this year are getting away with using anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric for political gain and not working to fix policy. 

“Strong schools equates to a strong economy, and we all want to prepare the next generation of our workforce to be productive members of our society,” Dyer said, adding that school boards should be more nonpartisan. “I truly believe in the idea of community schools and public education being the bedrock for democracy.”

Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association, a pro-education candidacy group said the list of candidates running on an anti-LGBTQ+ platform are not only “loud,” but also “stoke fear” by scapegoating queer people. 

“Their interest is trying to demonize a small group to make people feel safer instead of coming up with policy solutions,” she said, adding that she has witnessed people leave hearings and meetings crying. 

The way these politicians use offensive language is akin to lighting a fire, Garcia said, because it hurts the people who are under it, but similar-minded people see it is commendable. And that ‘lighting a fire’ technique used by extreme politicians “seems to be working with their base.”

That makes it even more important for voters to pay keen attention to who they vote for in this year’s election. 

“It's very clear which politicians are interested in doing good… for our community and those that just want to be politicians,” she said, urging people to vote for candidates “interested in finding a solution and not stoking fear.”