Advocates for LGBTQ, immigrant and disabled kids march around the Arizona Capitol during the Rally to Protect Our Kids on March 5, 2025 at the Arizona state Capitol. Photo by Caitlin Sievers | Arizona Mirror
The youth advocates who gathered on the Arizona Senate lawn the evening of March 5 said they will not stand for state and federal Republican officials targeting vulnerable students who are members of the LGBTQ and immigrant communities, as well as those with disabilities.
“I’ve watched in horror as the majority party at our legislature leads the attack on our most marginalized,” Raquel Mamani, a board member for Save Our Schools Arizona, told the crowd. “This is an exact reflection of a hate coming from our national leaders towards the immigrants, educators and LGBTQ communities. I should not have to hear the very existence of my family and loved ones being questioned by the president of the United States.”
Mamani was one of more than a dozen speakers from left-leaning groups like SOS AZ and Arizona Trans Youth and Parent Organization who called for increased funding for public education, an overhaul of the universal school voucher program, respect for the identities of transgender students, continued funding for students with disabilities and safety for children without legal immigration status.
Around 150 people carrying signs that read “fund education, not deportation” and “keep MAGA out of schools” cheered on the speakers and marched around the state Capitol, chanting “Sí se puede” and “This is what democracy looks like.”
Mamani’s child, Mimi, who is a junior in high school, said she was inspired by her mother to fight for social justice.
“My mother has taught me that silence is violence,” Mimi Mamani said. “I can’t physically sit back any longer and let them continue to dehumanize and demonize my communities. I’ll be finishing high school soon, and I dream of a world where I will at least have the same amount of rights as my mother did when she was my age.”
Tami Staas, executive director of Arizona Trans Youth and Parent Organization, told the crowd that an existential crisis is threatening the safety of transgender and nonbinary kids.
“This is not just a political issue, this is a matter of human rights,” she said.
Through executive orders and legislation, President Donald Trump and Arizona’s Republican lawmakers aim to erase the identities of transgender youths, Staas said.
Trump has issued several executive orders aimed at transgender minors, including one that defines gender as synonymous with physical sex at conception and one that bans transgender girls from competing in girls sports.
Republicans in the state legislature have for years unsuccessfully tried to ban transgender students from bathrooms that align with their gender identities, and the House of Representatives recently passed a bill that would narrowly define gender in state law, similar to Trump’s executive order.
Staas said that her son, who is transgender, moved out of state because of the anti-transgender sentiment in the Arizona government and beyond.
“I want to live in a community that values inclusion, compassion and love, and where kids aren’t treated as political pawns,” she said.
Staas called on the crowd to put pressure on both Republicans and Democrats in the state legislature to make changes to protect vulnerable children.
“We must be on the right side of justice,” she said.
Amy Pedotto, of EPIC Disability, said she’s the mother of a nonbinary child with a disability. Pedotto said she’s worried that federal and state officials will cut off funding for Medicaid and the state Division of Developmental Disabilities, putting an end to “life saving services” that they provide to those with disabilities. Pedotto added that, if the U.S. Department of Education is dismantled, as Trump has promised, along with the protections it provides to students with disabilities, it could mean a return to isolation and lack of services.
Democrats are outnumbered in Congress and the Arizona Legislature, limiting their power to fight back against attacks on transgender, immigrant and disabled students. But Arizona has Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in the executive tower, who has vetoed all anti-trans bills passed by the Republican-led legislature since she took office in 2023.
Brent Whiting, co-founder of Tomorrow We Vote, encouraged everyone at the rally to get involved in political advocacy by attending local school board meetings and backing candidates willing to protect students, as well as volunteering for and donating to organizations that work to protect Arizonan kids from marginalized communities.
Rallies are not enough, he said: “This is where it starts.”
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