By Staff Reporter |
Warren Petersen believes that Arizonans want their next chief law enforcement officer to prevent the extinction of female-only spaces, like girls sports and locker rooms.
Petersen, the Arizona Senate President and Republican nominee for attorney general, released a new, 30-second campaign ad on Tuesday featuring young female athletes declaring that “boys don’t belong in girls’ sports.”
“I work so hard. I practice every day after school. But some grown-ups think boys should be able to play against me, and use our locker rooms. That’s not right. Boys don’t belong in girls’ sports. Thank you, Warren Petersen, for fighting for me, at the capitol and at the Supreme Court, and for every girl in Arizona.”
Attorney General Kris Mayes, the Democratic incumbent, has had a “radical” and “extreme” tenure by refusing to respect the biological differences between genders and protect single-sex spaces, according to Petersen.
“Kris Mayes showed how radical she is by refusing to defend Arizona’s commonsense law to keep guys out of women’s sports and locker rooms,” said Petersen. “As Senate President I fought to protect girls. I will continue protecting girls as Arizona’s next Attorney General.”
The debate between Mayes and Petersen last month further illustrated the conflict between parties on law enforcement’s duty to define gender and police gender-based activities and spaces.
Petersen attacked Mayes for lacking the “common sense” to understand the biological differences between boys and girls.
“Talk about delusional,” said Petersen. “She thinks men can beat women, and boys are okay in girls’ sports.”
Mayes avoided the nitty-gritty of the more partisan political subjects like gender identity, instead arguing that the attorney general should be concerned with the areas where both parties could find more common middle ground, specifically naming fraud in the consumer, school choice, and Medicaid spaces; antitrust violations; environmental pollution; child support nonpayment; and drug trafficking as her examples of better office priorities.
“The primary objective of this office is to protect the people of Arizona and to make sure that corporations don’t take advantage of our state,” said Mayes.
Mayes declined to defend the Arizona Department of Education against a lawsuit filed in 2023 by the families of two transgender students challenging the state’s “Save Women’s Sports Act,” a state law passed in 2022 requiring students to play on sports teams aligning with their biological sex. That lawsuit was dropped over the summer following the Supreme Court’s June ruling in West Virginia v. B.P.J., affirming that biology, not gender identity, defines sex.
During Pride Month in 2023, several months after the transgender students sued, Mayes issued a press release condemning the Save Women’s Sports Act and all other “anti-LGBTQ bills” passed in Arizona and the nation. Mayes declared gender identity to be a civil right.
“With LGBTQ Americans – and particularly transgender Americans – increasingly targeted by extremist legislation designed to restrict their rights, I am reaffirming my office’s commitment to protecting the civil rights of all Arizonans,” said Mayes. “Federal and state civil rights laws protect the right of LGTBQ Arizonans to live, work, and freely access public accommodations without being subjected to discrimination, harassment, intimidation, or threats of violence because of who they are. My office is fully committed to enforcing these laws.”
Following Mayes’ refusal to join the case, Petersen joined the case alongside Arizona House Speaker Steve Montenegro (R-LD29) to defend the state law in the highest court through an amicus brief filed last September.
Petersen has fought in court in defense of the law for years.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
