Republican serial
homophobe Steven Yarbrough is a former member of the Arizona
State Senate, representing District 17 from
2011 to 2019. Yarbrough served as state
Senate president from 2017 to 2019.
Yarbrough was unable to run for re-election
in 2018 to the Arizona State Senate because
of term limits. Yarbrough previously served
as Senate majority leader from 2015 to 2017.
Yarbrough served in the Arizona House of
Representatives, representing District 21
from 2003 to 2011.
"Steve Yarbrough is president
of the Arizona State Senate.
He has used his
official position to promote tuition tax credits
that channel $100 million a year in vouchers to
private and religious schools in the state. Arizona
allows taxpayers who donate money to non-profit
voucher-granting organizations to claim a
dollar-for-dollar credit on their state taxes. The
organizations then allocate the donated funds to
students so they can pay tuition at the private and
religious schools."
"Yarbrough's Arizona Christian
School Tuition Organization has siphoned more than
$127 million from the state treasury via individual
tax-credit donations since 1998, according to the
non-profit's latest IRS filing, covering the 2014-15
school year. It's what you call a win-win. For the
students who get to go to private school on the
public’s dime. And for Yarbrough, who gets to cash
in on the program."
"Steve Yarbrough is one of the
most powerful men in Arizona. As president of the
State Senate, he has promoted a range of
conservative policies, including a tuition tax
credit system that provides over $100 million per
year to finance vouchers for private schools. In his
speech to Congress this week, President Trump
singled out a young woman who attended private
school using a tax credit-financed voucher. The
president urged Congress to pass legislation that
would provide similar benefits to millions of
students. But Mr. Yarbrough is not just a champion
of tax credit vouchers. He also profits from them
personally."
Mar. 2, 2017
Center
for
Arizona
Policy
2016 Survey
Questions For
Arizona Candidates
Position Sought:
State
Senate LD-17
Question
4:
Adding "sexual orientation,"
"gender identity," or "gender
expression" to the protected
classes of race, religion, age,
sex, and ancestry in
nondiscrimination law.
Candidates'
Position:
Oppose.
Question
6:
Prohibiting government from
discriminating against an
individual, organization, or
small business based on their
beliefs about marriage.*
Candidates'
Position:
Support.
Question
10:
Implementing policies to allow
students and faculty to use the
restroom, locker room, and
shower room that aligns with
their gender identity.
Question
9: Arizona’s voter-approved constitutional definition of marriage should be defended to the fullest extent legally possible.
Candidates'
Position: Support
Question
11: Adding “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” or “gender expression” to the protected classes of race, religion, age, sex, and ancestry in antidiscrimination law.
Candidates'
Position: Oppose
Question
15: Protecting individuals and businesses from being required to provide services or use their artistic expression in a manner that violates their moral or religious beliefs.*
"Arizona
state Rep. Steve Yarbrough (R) has
introduced a bill (SB 1062) that would
create a blanket “license to discriminate”
against LGBT people (and others) so long as
there was religious motivation to do so. He
hopes to avoid a situation like in neighbor
state New Mexico where a wedding
photographer was found guilty of
discrimination for refusing to work a
same-sex couple’s commitment ceremony.
Yarbrough’s bill, which he has introduced in
past sessions, is so sweeping that religious
belief could be used to defend any form of
discrimination that would otherwise be
protected under law, including gender. He
acknowledged to reporter Howard Fischer that
his bill could be used to discriminate
against not only gay people, but also
unmarried women, or people with different
religious beliefs, as examples. It’s
possible that his bill could actually allow
religion to be used to justify breaking
nearly any law in Arizona. Yarbrough simply
trusts that protections that have been
traditionally recognized before would still
be protected were his bill to become law.
Such
discrimination doesn’t infringe on people’s
rights, Yarbrough claims, so long as the
services can be accessed elsewhere. A hotel
could use the law to refuse a room to a gay
couple without fear of a suit so long as
there were other hotels in town. It would be
just like it already is for pharmacists, who
are protected from dispensing the “morning
after” pill to women if it violates their
religious beliefs:
“If he’s the only pharmacy in Bisbee, you
may have a problem,” he said. But
Yarbrough said the outcome would be
different “if there are two more down the
road and Target does this and there’s no
issue, and he knows that you can go there.”
“And, of course, if he’s at all smart, is
probably going to say, ‘And by the way, two
blocks down the road is a Target and they
have a pharmacy,’” Yarbrough said.
Apparently discrimination is okay if
motivated by religious beliefs, so long as
there’s another hotel, pharmacy, or lunch
counter down the street that doesn’t
discriminate. If they all happen to
discriminate, Yarbrough seems to believe
that’s their right and the individuals
denied service are just out of luck.
Gov. Jan Brewer (R) vetoed an
identical version of Yarbrough’s bill last
year as part of a vendetta against the state
legislature for not passing a budget."
"A
typical instance of
the "academic
freedom" strategy
for undermining the
integrity of science
education, SB 1213
specifically
targeted "biological
evolution, the
chemical origins of
life, global
warming[,] and human
cloning" as
supposedly
controversial."
PLEASE NOTE:
A "Yes" vote would
allow ranch dogs to
be neglected or
abandoned, killed
and tortured. It
would allow the owner of a ranch dog
to inflict
unnecessary injury
to the animal and
not provide medical
attention.
Question
9: Amending the United States Constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
Candidates'
Position: Support
Question
11: Adding
“sexual
orientation,”
“gender
identity,”
or
“gender
expression”
to the
protected
classes
of race,
religion,
age,
sex, and
ancestry
in
nondiscrimination
law.
Candidates'
Position: Oppose
Question
15: Protecting professionals from being required to provide services that violate their moral or religious beliefs.*
*SB
1365 would have allowed a doctor to refuse to treat a person who was LGBTQ
or allow a waitress or waiter to refuse service to a person who was
LGBTQ simply by saying it was against their sincerely held religious
beliefs to treat or serve a queer person.
2010 Survey
Questions For
Arizona And County
Candidates
Position Sought:
State Senate
LD-21
Question
9: Amending the United States Constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
Candidates'
Position: Support
Question
12: Adding
“sexual
orientation,”
“gender
identity,”
or
“gender
expression”
to the
protected
classes
of race,
religion,
age,
sex, and
ancestry
in
nondiscrimination
law.
Candidates'
Position: Oppose
Question
15: Protecting professionals from being required to provide services that violate their moral or religious beliefs.*
