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.*
