A bill to help LGBTQ+ students access local scholarships died in the House
The bill was never heard in committee, and a last-ditch effort to get it added onto another bill was killed by a fellow LGBTQ+ legislator.
A bill aimed at creating a scholarship fund for LGBTQ+ students and others failed after the state's only openly gay Republican motioned against it.
Last week during the House Committee of the Whole, where state representatives do a final debate on bills passed through committees before switching over to the Senate, Rep. Lorena Austin (D-Mesa) tried to amend a bill to include legislation she proposed that created a special license plate where proceeds went to Maricopa Community College’s Prism Scholarship supporting LGBTQ+ students.
As LOOKOUT reported last year, the bill faced the reality of not being heard in the legislature, since Senate and House Republican leadership have both stonewalled any bills in support of LGBTQ+ causes. House leadership never assigned Austin's bill to a committee so it didn't receive a hearing for a vote…