For Immediate Release
May 1, 2023

74th Arkansas Legislature Session Sine Dies at Last

Little Rock, Ark.–Today the Arkansas Legislature reconvened to consider vetoed legislation by Governor Sanders and adjourn “Sine Die,” which signals the end of the regular session. Given how hurtful and anti-Arkansan so much of the legislation that passed this year is, we should all be grateful this day has arrived.

The Christian nationalists who currently hold a supermajority in the Arkansas legislature do not care about the people who elected them. Laws passed by the Arkansas legislature in the 2023 session hurt ordinary Arkansans and, by extension, hurt our state.

Legislative acts from this session have effectively defunded Arkansas public schools and denied adequate medical care to women and children. A new law gives preferential treatment to religious groups and individuals for even small burdens on religion—regardless of whether that burden constitutes a constitutional violation—even though Arkansas voters soundly defeated this law in 2022.

Above and beyond all else, the legislature demonstrated its abject short-sightedness and utter stupidity about anything it deemed the province of “wokeism.” In other words, if a policy was even remotely kind to a marginalized group, this legislature adamantly opposed it. In particular, the 2023 legislature’s sickening attack on transgender people was unprecedented in its targeted hate. It failed to comprehend basic standards of medical care, and it disregarded how transgender people appear in society.

The performative nature of these laws and the mountain of even worse bills that didn’t pass demonstrates that those elected to govern the State of Arkansas, except for a small but fierce handful of fair-minded humanitarians, are determined to force their extremism on Arkansas no matter whom it hurts. It also demonstrates that these hateful Christian nationalists are obsessed with policing other people’s genitalia, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that doing so kills people and ruins lives.

The Arkansas Society of Freethinkers promotes a secular viewpoint. The First Amendment guarantees the separation of church and state. We work with like-minded people and organizations to maintain this separation. We develop and host informative activities in science, reason, acceptance, and humanism. We also get together for fun. The Arkansas Society of Freethinkers does not discriminate as to gender, race, age, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, nationality, religion, or disability.

For more information about ASF, visit https://www.arfreethinkers.org.
Arkansas Society of Freethinkers, info@arfreethinkers.org

Join ASF on May 19th for an overview of the spring legislative session with ACLU of Arkansas Policy Director Sarah Everett.