Backed by Republican House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a bill to protect gay and transgender Arizonans from discrimination was given a hearing, but not a vote.

House Bill 2802 lacks the 31 votes necessary to pass out of the House of Representatives. But Bowers, who co-sponsored the bill with Democratic Rep. Amish Shah, had promised to get the bill a hearing — a promise he fulfilled by calling an ad hoc committee of four Republicans and four Democrats last Thursday.

Given the lack of support from most Republicans in a chamber controlled by Republicans, the fact that the bill was even given a hearing was significant for LGBTQ advocates.

HB 2802 would extend anti-discrimination protections in Arizona law for housing, public accommodations and the workplace to gay and transgender people.

Conservative gay rights advocate Tim Schultz told the committee that religious and gay rights can co-exist.

“Legal protections for LGBT persons and people in institutions of faith are, quote, ‘both possible and needed in a just society,’” he testified.

Some Republicans who’ve balked at the bill were swayed by conservative Christian lobbyist Cathi Herrod, who told the ad hoc committee HB 2802 would harm businesses and violate religious freedoms.

“It places government in favor of and defense of a coercive sexual ethic,” Herrod said. “It denies women and girls their privacy and their safety, forcing them to share private spaces with boys and men.”