Two vastly different situations over the last week have put a spotlight on how lawmakers in Arizona use taxpayer-funded resources in Arizona.
As of last week, conference rooms are no longer accessible to House Democrats in Arizona without the express permission of Republican leaders.
"We have to have the Republican majority chief of staff open the doors for us, like we're children," said state Rep. Lorena Austin, a Democrat representing District 9. Austin identifies as nonbinary and uses she/they pronouns.
Austin coordinated a drag story time event in a House conference room last Tuesday, which they said was intended to engage in the conversation often brought up by politicians about the LGBTQ+ community, and particularly drag performances.
A flier for the event was shared amongst some legislative staff ahead of time, advertising it as an event sponsored by Austin and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona, the advocacy arm of Planned Parenthood.
The event was intended for adults, Austin said, and only adults were present on Tuesday morning.
The event featured about five poems read by a drag performer, according to Austin.
The focus of the poems, Austin added, was "telling the lives of some LGBTQ activists in history, just like you'd see in any other type of book portraying somebody who has done something for their community."
Around an hour after the event began, Republican state Sen. Anthony Kern tweeted the invitation to the event, tagging House Speaker Ben Toma, R-27th District, and questioned why Toma had allowed it to take place. 27 minutes after Kern's post, Toma tweeted that he would be banning House Democrats from accessing meeting rooms "until trust can be restored."
Austin said she had made Toma's office aware of the content of the meeting: "I didn't do anything, again, deceitful. I have no reason to."
Toma, however, said Austin's office failed to mention that the event would include a drag performer. The Republican, currently running for Congress in Arizona's District 8, continued in his post that "use of House facilities for radical activism to promote dangerously perverse ideology will not be tolerated while I am Speaker."
Austin said Toma's actions went beyond those expected of a legislative leader.
"Unfortunately, the majority's acting like a supermajority, when we're pretty even in the legislature," Austin said, referring to the narrow margin between both parties. "But overall, you know, we all ran and we all got elected. And regardless if we all agree on each other's thought or perspective, I think that reserves us the right to have these types of conversations."
As a result of Austin's event, all House lawmakers are now expected to submit requests to use capitol facilities in writing, according to a member of the staff.
In the aftermath of Toma's announcement, a different situation unfolded after the Arizona Mirror revealed Kern had used taxpayer-funded Capitol broadcast facilities to appear on a talk show hosted by a known Holocaust denier and white nationalist.
On May 1, the day after the drag event, Kern appeared on "The Stew Peters Show" to discuss the drag story hour.
During the show, Peters repeatedly says, without any basis for his statements, that the drag performer reading at the event was a pedophile. Peters also suggests that Toma may have been a "pedophile" or a "groomer" himself because the event was held while Toma was the speaker.
While Kern denies Toma is a pedophile, he did not push back on any of Peters' other claims and agreed with many of his other statements.
"It is time for battle," Kern said. "This is our 1776 moment."
Anti-LGBTQ+ extremists have been known to accuse members of the community, particularly drag performers, of pedophilia, an approach that members of the community have said directly threatens their safety and livelihoods.
Peters has been outspoken in calling for the execution of Democrats and figures perceived to be progressive, speaking violently about marginalized groups such as Jews and the LGBTQ+ community, and has spoken at a white nationalist conference. He spends many of his shows, which are posted on alternative social platforms such as Gab, spreading baseless and repeatedly disproven conspiracy theories to his audience.
Kern's appearance on the show received a rebuke from Senate President Warren Petersen, R-12th District, whose spokeswoman Kim Quintero shared the following statement:
"The Senate President does not approve of how the Senator chose to use legislative broadcast resources last week, and as a result, his privileges to use those resources for future interviews have been revoked."
Kern has said little publicly about his privileges being revoked, but on May 7 he tweeted his support for Israel, which he described as America's "number one ally." The day prior, he responded to a reporter's tweet about the news by appearing to call the media antisemitic.
