2023 Legislative Session
ID: “We are tracking 45+ bills targeting 2SLGBTQ+ Oklahomans this Legislative Session.” with the FOK logo on a blue overlay with a picture of a drag queen performing for youth outside.
At Freedom Oklahoma, we work year-round to build a future where all 2SLGBTQ+ people have the safety to thrive. Yet, we often find ourselves busiest each year from February through May, as the Oklahoma Legislature convenes for regular session, and increasingly uses their power and resources to attack 2SLGBTQ+ Oklahomans, especially our 2STGNC+ (Two Spirit, Transgender, Gender Nonconforming+) siblings.
There are some people who would ask you at this moment to take a moderate approach. Who suggest that there is a way to fit our 2STGNC+ community into molds that will be acceptable to the people authoring and supporting this harmful policy. Who have internalized respectability politics to maintain comfort for some as the goal of the work. But there is no moderation in the attack on transgender people. There is no question that these policies, if passed, will cost trans lives. So we’re asking you to join us in this fight, boldly focused on building power. Unapologetic in your radical love and acceptance of our entire 2STGNC+ community. Committed to the work that gets us closer to safety, to liberation. Not victims, but people working together to determine our own future. A future where no one is left behind or left out for the sake of political expediency. A future where all 2SLGBTQ+ people are safe. A future where community joy is always placed ahead of personal comfort. A present where we acknowledge we do this work not just because trans lives are worth saving, but because trans lives are worth living.
We are too familiar with being the targets of extremist politicians looking to make national news, and we know that while the volume of these bills are at an all time-high in Oklahoma. The same is true across the country. We know what it is to fight against impossible odds, to build progress through obstacles, to hope as a discipline, and to create an Oklahoma where 2SLGBTQ+ Oklahomans are not only safe but celebrated. We do that work every day. And we do it with you, for all of us. Thanks for standing in the gap alongside our Freedom Oklahoma team. We’ve got some big fights in front of us, but first, let us tell you about what we’re working toward.
How our team at Freedom Oklahoma invites you to do this work along with us:
At Freedom Oklahoma, we know 2SLGBTQ+ people have been under attack on this land since settler colonizers first arrived. That history is at the root of this work. The undoing and the reimagining. We believe it is critical to build power and engage in advocacy to achieve collective, community-based safety. While we fight harmful policy attempts, we also search for opportunities to build and move forward. It is tough and intentional work, and we do it imperfectly, always striving to do better, to grow our table, to make sure everyone in the community has space in the movement, while especially centering our community members who are most often marginalized and excluded. As an organization, we will forsake popularity to avoid compromising on behalf of the rights and safety of 2SLGBTQ+ people. Two-Spirit, Transgender, and Queer liberation is the work. The 2SLGBTQ+ community is not a monolith, and therefore we as a single organization cannot claim to do this work on behalf of anyone. Rather we seek to do work with and among our community members, with a growing coalition of accomplices, and until the community safety we seek is realized.
Ahead of the 2023 Oklahoma Legislative Session, we’re tracking 45 bills targeting 2SLGBTQ+ Oklahomans, and an additional 43 shell bills that could see harmful language added over the course of the next 4 months.
The fights we anticipate in and beyond this legislative session:
Ensure transgender Oklahomans maintain access to best-practice medical care
There is no acceptable version of banning healthcare for transgender people. Across the 15 different versions of trans healthcare bans we have seen introduced so far this session, they are each extreme in their cruelty and capacity to do harm. This is five times as many of these bills as we saw in the 2022 session. These are some of the most extreme political attacks we have ever seen introduced at the Oklahoma Legislature, and the volume and mechanisms employed require diligent and urgent response for us all. They display a fundamental lack of understanding of transgender people, and could only serve to legislate transgender people out of existence. These efforts restrict access to best-practice medical care for transgender people that is backed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and virtually all other leading medical authorities.
Bills to watch: HB 1011, HB 1377, HB 1466, HB 2177, SB 129, SB 250, SB 252, SB 345, SB 613, SB 614, SB 786, SB 787, SB 788, SB 789, SB 878
Fight government intrusion, censorship, and trans criminalization introduced in Drag Bans
Drag is an art. It’s theater, it's camp, it's dressing up, it's acting. It’s embodying and bringing to life a character to entertain the public - to escape reality, and experience joy and laughter, even for an hour or two. While extremists introducing this legislation claim to be protecting children, it is drag performers we have seen on the front lines of solidarity and acceptance with the 2SLGBTQ+ youth being targeted by those in power. Drag performers have been on Oklahoma stages since statehood. Some of these bills go so far as to conflate gender identity and gender expression, posing a threat to criminalize transgender people for existing in front of any audience. These bills are nothing more than the weaponization of already violent rhetoric in an attempt to further harm our 2SLGBTQ+ community, limit our representation, and advance an environment of fear. This is government overreach and infringes on freedom of expression.
Bills to watch: HB 2186, HB 2736, SB 503, SB 1098
Disrupt attempts to make schools more hostile environments for 2SLGBTQ+ students, educators, and families
Schools should be places where community members can guarantee that every student is protected and every family is respected. But members of the Oklahoma Legislature think they know better than educators, parents, and experts how schools should run, what should be taught, and what books should be available. Their plans center on furthering discrimination while defunding the public school system. The bills in this category range in nature from Don’t Say Gay/Trans bills, student surveillance, library censorship, and content censorship to phasing out all federal funding in Oklahoma schools.
Bills to watch: SB 1007, SB 30, SB 131, HB 1780, HB 1781, SB 973, SB 935, SB 1017, SB 20, SB 95, SB 872, HB 1810, HB 1811, SB 140, SB 2, SB 867, SB 397, HB 1812, HB 2002, HB 2535, HB 2078
Beyond these bills, there are a few additional attacks that pose a threat, including attempts to weaponize the baseless-grooming rhetoric (SB 856, SB 1072), legislation to enshrine transgender exclusion and discrimination in statute (SB 408), further attacks on accurate indicators for gender on government forms (SB 251), and a pathway to attack marriage equality (SB 455). It’s clear that the volume and variety of attacks are meant to overwhelm 2SLGBT+ Oklahomans, to suggest we’re not welcome here. But we belong in Oklahoma. 2SLGBTQ+ people have always existed on this land, and we will continue to.
Further, there are several attacks that seek to criminalize and further restrict access to abortion care, legislation targeting voters and our ability to engage with state ballot questions, attacks on our immigrant community members, and further disruption of our public education system. None of this policy happens in a vacuum. So many of us live at the intersections of these attacks, and the fights can feel overwhelming. In these moments where the harm feels overwhelming, we hope you’ll remember Mariame Kaba’s words, “Hope is a discipline.” How you choose to practice hope is personal, but for our team, so often hope is found in community, and in action. So we hope that when you find yourself searching, you’ll be reminded that there is always room for you alongside us in this fight.
Even in such a tough year, we want to acknowledge the bright spots–bills introduced to protect and affirm 2SLGBTQ+ people. The bills we’re hopeful to see advance include:
Expanding nondiscrimination protections to include gender identity and expression as well as sexuality- HB 2119
Repealer for the arbitrary requirement to publish name changes- HB 2342
Repealer for the statutes that continue to criminalize HIV, instead of responding to public health needs with a public health approach- HB 2343
Pathway for pharmacists to prescribe certain contraceptives- HB 2117
Include consent in the sex education standards- HB 2118
Repealers for HB 1775- HB 2045, HB 1031
Restoration of public comment in the Oklahoma Legislative process- SB 759
Sales tax exemption on menstrual products- SB 382
.
.
.
We see you. We love you. We’ll keep fighting for your right to not just exist but to thrive here. Until we’re all safe. Session by session, day by day, side by side with you.