Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) signed a pair of executive orders Tuesday that strengthened protections for LGBTQ people in the state, banning state support for so-called conversion therapy and requiring that gender-affirming health care for transgender state employees be covered under their insurance plan.
Hobbs’s executive actions will prohibit the use of state funding to promote or facilitate “conversion therapy,” a scientifically discredited practice that seeks to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The practice has been denounced by major medical organizations as harmful and unscientific, in part because it is based on a false belief that LGBTQ identities are pathologies that need to — and can — be cured.
Arizona is the latest in a growing number of states to enact at least a partial ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ minors, according to the Movement Advancement Project, which tracks state-level policies impacting the LGBTQ community. Twenty-one states and Washington, D.C., have passed total bans.
Hobbs on Tuesday additionally expanded access to gender-affirming health care by prohibiting state employee health insurance plans from excluding coverage for gender-affirming surgery, which has been banned in Arizona since 2017.
