by Staff Reporter | Jun 3, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
For the third year in a row, the Arizona governor made a bold statement for Pride Month.
Governor Katie Hobbs again raised the Pride flag stories above the American flags on the Executive Tower on Monday in recognition of Pride Month. Hobbs pledged her loyalty to advancing and protecting LGBTQ+ ideologies.
“I’m proud to fly the Pride banner from the Executive Tower in celebration of Pride Month,” said Hobbs. “I will always stand for the freedom of Arizonans to be who they are, love who they love, and live with dignity and without fear.”
These flags are technically an expansion of the original rainbow-based Pride flag because they include the colors light pink, light blue, and white to represent transgenderism as well as black and brown to represent people with brown or black skin tones.
Pride Month was first officially recognized by the federal government in 1999 under President Bill Clinton, initially called “Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.” Then, in 2011, President Barack Obama expanded Pride Month recognition into what it consists of today.
During his first term in 2017, President Donald Trump didn’t offer federal recognition of Pride Month.
However, the first Pride Parade in Arizona took place in Phoenix in 1981 — about a decade after the first pride marches occurred in response to the 1970 Stonewall Riots in New York. The riots erupted following a police raid on a gay bar in Manhattan and lasted nearly a week.
Hobbs has continued her commitment to Pride Month despite the growing reluctance of other major cultural players to continue doing so. A frequent supporter of LGBTQ+ ideologies, Google, announced earlier this year it would no longer highlight Pride Month by default on Google Calendar. The corporation said the continued recognition of Pride Month wasn’t “scalable or sustainable,” citing the burden of recognizing the ever-increasing number of “cultural moments” globally.
Hobbs has flown the Pride flags above the American flags every summer since taking office.
During last summer’s Pride Month, Hobbs vetoed legislation guaranteeing equality of care for gender transition reversals, dubbed the “Detransitioner Bill of Rights.” This year, Hobbs vetoed bills limiting school locker room usage by gender, barring gender changes on birth certificates, preventing any funding to higher education institutes teaching students about gender identity, and precluding legal recognition of gender transitions.
During her first Pride Month as governor, Hobbs used an Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) drone to film the Pride flags. Reporting on the matter was delayed until the following year because it took the governor’s office nine months to respond to public records requests.
As reported initially, ADOT drone usage is intended for inspections and surveys of work concerning state infrastructure.
Hobbs also used state time to hold several ceremonies to watch the unfurling of the flags from the balcony and then admire the flags from the ground below, followed by an hour-long “Pride Roundtable” with those same guests.
Hobbs’ first executive order expanded discrimination protections to include prohibitions against “gender identity” discrimination in state employment and contracts.
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by Corinne Murdock | Mar 1, 2024 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Gov. Katie Hobbs’ office used the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) drone to film the Pride flags on the Executive Tower last June.
AZ Free News is only now reporting on these facts because it took nearly nine months for the governor’s office to respond to our public records request.
Public records revealed that ADOT’s lead drone pilot captured at least 15 clips — over 21 minutes of raw footage — of the Pride flags hanging on Hobbs’ office. The displayed flags were the version of the rainbow Pride flag known as the “Progress Pride” flag, due to their inclusion of white, pink, and blue to represent transgenderism, and black and brown to represent both non-white individuals and those who died from HIV/AIDS.
The display was the first of the kind by the governor’s office. Hobbs previously hung a mainstream Pride flag while secretary of state in 2019, but legislative leadership removed it after several hours. Hobbs revealed the Pride flags on the first day of Pride Month.
“Kicking off pride month leaving no room for doubt that in Arizona, we celebrate the light and energy the LGBTQ+ community brings to our state,” said Hobbs.
ADOT drones are intended for inspections and surveying work on state infrastructure, such as highways and bridges. They were acquired about six years ago through a combination of state and federal funding.
ADOT received much of its drone fleet through a Federal Highway Administration-sponsored Arizona Council for Transportation Innovation program in 2018. At the time, the drones cost $18,100 in federal funds and over $4,500 in matching state funds.
According to public salary data from 2022, ADOT’s lead drone pilot makes over $79,200 a year: an average of $41 an hour on a 40-hour workweek. Drone piloting also requires certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which generally costs around $200.
As part of the display, public records documented how Hobbs invited guests to watch her unfurl the flags from the balcony and stand with her on the ground floor to admire the flags from below. Hobbs then hosted an hour-long “Pride Roundtable” with those guests.
Among those present at the roundtable were advocates of transitioning children’s genders, including those with personal experience like Lizette Trujillo. She was accompanied by her daughter, 15-year-old Danny, who identifies as a boy.
Other advocates present included two men identifying as women: Gaelle Esposito, lobbyist with Creosote Partners, and Jeanne Woodbury, interim executive director for Equality Arizona.
Additional public record requests revealed that the governor’s office sourced the flags from Phoenix Pride, the LGBTQ+ activist organization behind the annual Pride Festival. The organization reached out to the governor’s office last Easter.
Last year’s Pride Festival drew controversy for including overtly sexual displays such as genitalia and fetish costumes, nudity, and condom bars. Conversely, Hobbs’ takeaway from the festival last year was that the LGBTQ+ community was one of love and light.
Hobbs identified LGBTQ+ policies as her main priorities throughout her gubernatorial campaign. Her first executive order prohibited gender identity discrimination in state employment and contracts; however, Hobbs campaigned on taking anti-discrimination protections even further.
The governor promised to enact protections similar to those in Civil Rights laws: bans on LGBTQ+ discrimination in housing, education, adoptions, foster care, insurance, public accommodations, and credit procurement, as well as a ban on law enforcement profiling based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Jun 3, 2023 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Gov. Katie Hobbs hung four “Progress” Pride flags from the governor’s office on the first day of Pride Month.
The Progress Pride Flag is an expansion of the traditional rainbow Pride flag: it includes light pink, light blue, and white to represent transgender individuals, and black and brown to represent people of color.
Hobbs said that LGBTQ+-identifying individuals brought “light and energy” to the state.
“I will continue to work alongside you until we have an Arizona where everyone, no matter who they are or who they love, has the safety, freedom, and opportunity to truly live their authentic lives,” said Hobbs.
Pride Month can be traced back to the first Pride marches held in late June, 1970 on the one-year anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, or Stonewall Riots, in Manhattan, New York. The uprising consisted of six days of riots in response to a police raid on a gay bar in Manhattan, New York. At that time, states widely prohibited homosexual relations. Activists commemorated the week-long riots with marches in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco.
In Hobbs’ campaign platform, the governor promised to enact anti-discrimination policies that explicitly banned LGBTQ+ discrimination in housing, education, adoption, foster care, insurance, public accommodations, and credit procurement. Hobbs also promised to ban law enforcement profiling based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
Hobbs’ first executive order prohibited gender identity discrimination in state employment and contracts.
In a March event with One N Ten, a pro-LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, Hobbs served as the honorary chair. The governor pledged her allegiance to LGBTQ+ individuals.
“It’s been a long time coming to have an ally for the LGBTQ+ community in our state’s highest office. So let me say this loudly, clearly, and unequivocally: with me as Governor, you have one,” stated Hobbs.
One N Ten advances LGBTQ+ ideology in both minors and young adults, ages 11-24. They offered a peer support program to gender transitioning patients from Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
In April, Hobbs vetoed SB 1005, which prohibited a court from granting attorney fees, expenses, or damages to a governmental entity or official concerning a parent’s lawsuit alleging that the entity or official interfered with their right to direct the upbringing, education, health care, or mental health of their child.
Hobbs stated in her veto letter that the bill didn’t protect parental rights but rather removes the consequence for frivolous lawsuits. The governor chastised Republican legislators to “turn down the temperature and rhetoric” to produce solutions.
“Across the country and here in Arizona, schools and teachers have been maligned by bad actors who spread baseless theories, seeking to create conflict with teachers, school boards, and administrators,” said Hobbs. “Parents, acting in good-faith concern for their children, are often caught up in the middle of these conflicts.”
This wasn’t the first year that Hobbs used her state office to display LGBTQ+ paraphernalia. Last year while secretary of state, Hobbs’ administration hung a Pride Flag and waved a transgender flag from their office balcony.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
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