PHOENIX – House Democrats lost their privilege Tuesday of using meeting rooms after they conducted a “drag story hour,” what Speaker Ben Toma called “radical activism to promote dangerously perverse ideology.”
An aide to Speaker Ben Toma said his office approved the use of the basement room based on a request by Rep. Lorena Austin to have a meeting with Planned Parenthood Arizona on legislative issues. But it was only later – just ahead of the scheduled Tuesday event – that Toma press aide Andrew Wilder said the speaker found out exactly how the Mesa Democrat was promoting it.
The event did take place. But Toma, in a social media post, said that never should have happened.
“Use of House facilities for radical activism to promote dangerously perverse ideology will not be tolerated while I am speaker,” he said. And Toma said it won’t happen again.
“I’ve ordered that Democrats have lost the privilege of accessing House meeting rooms until trust can be restored,” he said.
Austin said no one was misled.