Arizona still doesn’t have an LGBTQ license plate. Here’s why

A license plate that Arizona Republicans have blocked would have provided scholarships to community college students who identify as LGBTQ. 

Nearly every group that seeks funding from speciality license plates is given the OK from lawmakers—that is, except organizations associated with the LGBTQ community. 

Two bills in the House and Senate that would have created a specialty license plate funding a scholarship program organized by Equality Maricopa were shot down by the Republican majority. 

Neither House Bill 2531 or Senate Bill 1190—sponsored by Rep. Lorena Austin, D-Mesa, and Sen. Analise Ortiz, D-Phoenix—received a committee hearing due to Republican leadership choosing not to schedule each bill for committee debates.

Had either of the bills passed, or amendments been adopted, Arizona would have been one of just three other states with an LGBTQ license plate. 

READ MORE: Arizona state senator ignores LGBTQ community, continues 12-year crusade against transgender students

Both proposals would have funded the PRISM Scholarship through Equality Maricopa, which is the college’s largest affinity group for LGBTQ+ staff, students, and teachers and is run by volunteers.

More than 90 LGBTQ+ and allied students applied for a PRISM Scholarship in the 2024-2025 academic year, but Equality Maricopa could fund only 14 of those students—and a specialty license plate could expand scholarships to hundreds more, LOOKOUT News first reported. 

License plates that benefit various organizations are not uncommon—Arizona drivers can choose from a plate benefitting anything from Arizona Highways Magazine to charitable organizations like Habitat for Humanity of Central Arizona.   

Of the $25 that drivers pay for the plate, $17 benefit the specified organization, and the remaining $8 goes to the Arizona Department of Transportation—specialty license plates do not cost taxpayers anything, and sponsors of a specialty plate must pay for production costs.  

The license plate would have provided scholarships to community college students who identify as LGBTQ, and Equality Maricopa had raised all the necessary funding for production costs, which is $32,000.

Scholarships similar to the PRISM Scholarship are at risk after the Maricopa County Community College District announced that Equality Maricopa is being disbanded to comply with the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights’ anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, LOOKOUT News first reported.   

There are over 100 specialty license plates to choose from, including some that benefit right-wing organizations like the Arizona Life Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing and ending abortion, and the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group. 

“I don’t understand how it’s fair that we accept all these other groups, even partisan groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom with their religious plates, but not a community that doesn’t choose to be anything but who they are,” said Austin, who is nonbinary, during a committee of the whole session.

Attempting to revive the measures 

Both Ortiz and Austin attempted to revive their bills in the form of amendments—and both were blocked by Republican leadership.

Austin tried to attach their bill to a strike-everything amendment for a variety of specialty license plates, including some for beneficiaries like sororities and fraternities, but the bill was passed to exclude Austin’s measure. 

“I’ve never hidden anything about this plate, but the fact that the other representatives’ amendments will be adopted but not mine exactly proves the point: That the LGBTQ community is being discriminated against here,” Austin said during the committee of the whole session in February. “I don’t stand for the hypocrisy in this chamber. It’s absolutely undeniable—you want rights and freedoms for certain people but not people like me,” they said. 

This isn’t new behavior, either: During last year’s legislative session, Austin proposed a similar bill that also was not scheduled for a committee hearing—and Austin’s attempt to attach this measure to another specialty plate bill drew pushback from Republicans, including the only openly gay Republican, Rep. Matt Gress, R-Phoenix. 

“When people in this body say, ‘Oh, I’m not necessarily against you or your community,’ here’s your opportunity to prove it,’’ Austin said. “Many of you do not walk your talk. You’ll come up to me and say, ‘Hello,’ you’re super kind to me, we have conversations, and then you ignore me, you ignore my community, and you ignore people who just want to exist.”