Photo: 888 Brannan Street, San Francisco. Dllu, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped, via Wikimedia Commons.
Airbnb’s girls’ sports signs problem started with a check. The home-sharing company gave money to the Arizona Senate Victory Fund, a Republican political committee. By early October, that committee’s signs had gone up in Arizona’s Legislative District 4, showing a girl on crutches and a simple message: “Aaron Lieberman voted to put guys in girls’ sports.”
Arizona’s Voters’ Right to Know Act, passed by voters as Prop 211 in 2022, requires big-spending political committees to name their top donors on their ads. So at the bottom of those signs sat the name of one of the committee’s biggest funders: Airbnb.
Then Airbnb ran from it.
What Airbnb Said About the Signs
The Arizona Republic broke the story on October 7, 2026. Airbnb’s answer came from company spokesperson Lauren Bouton:
"The message on this sign doesn’t represent the views of Airbnb. We were not made aware of this campaign collateral in advance, nor do we have authority over ads produced by any third-party PAC that we contribute to in Arizona."
Lauren Bouton, Airbnb spokesperson, to The Arizona Republic
Notice what Airbnb did not say. It did not say the vote on the sign was misstated. It did not say it would stop giving to political committees in Arizona. It said the sign’s message doesn’t represent Airbnb’s views.
Arizona campaign finance filings show Airbnb gave the committee $90,000 in 2025 and 2026, including $5,000 in in-kind support, as the Washington Sun reported. Those donations are why its name had to appear on the sign.
The Vote Behind the Sign
The sign points to a real vote. In 2020, the Arizona House took up HB 2706, a bill that said school teams designated for “females, women or girls” may not be open to students of the male sex, according to the House’s own bill summary.
On March 3, 2020, it passed the House 31 to 29 on a straight party-line vote. All 31 Republicans voted yes. All 29 Democrats voted no, including then-Rep. Aaron Lieberman, according to the roll call. The bill died in the Senate.
Two years later, Arizona passed the idea anyway. Gov. Doug Ducey signed SB 1165, the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” on March 30, 2022. In his signing letter, Ducey wrote that the law makes sure “girls and young women who have dedicated themselves to their sport do not miss out on hard-earned opportunities including their titles, standings and scholarships due to unfair competition.”
Lieberman, a Democrat, is now running against Republican state Sen. Carine Werner in District 4.
Most Americans Agree With the Sign, Not Airbnb
Airbnb treated the sign’s message like an embarrassment. The public does not.
In Gallup’s May 2025 Values and Beliefs poll, 69% of U.S. adults said transgender athletes should only be allowed to play on teams that match their birth sex. That includes about nine in 10 Republicans and a majority of independents. Only 24% said they should play on teams that match their current gender identity.
Support for the other side has fallen since Gallup first asked in 2021, when it stood at 34%. The position Airbnb rushed to distance itself from is the majority view.
Why Airbnb Picked a Side
Airbnb has a long record on this front, and it’s on our Airbnb Woke Company Report.
The company holds a 2026 score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, and a verified 100 requires transgender-inclusive health benefits. Airbnb also signed HRC’s coalition statement opposing state legislation, including parental-rights and sports bills. Our report gives Airbnb an F, 60 out of 100, one of the lowest grades on the list.
So this was never about one sign. Airbnb gives money to political committees, then tells the public its values are somewhere else. Arizona’s legislature writes the state’s short-term rental rules, and Airbnb has a lot riding on them. But when its money showed up next to a position held by nearly seven in 10 Americans, it backed away.
Companies are free to give money to whoever they want. Customers are free to notice what they say when the money becomes public.
What You Can Do
Airbnb is on the Woke Broke List boycott list. If you want alternatives for your next trip, start there. And if you want to know the next time a company tells on itself like this, sign up for our newsletter.