February 2022 update
Image description: A group of people smiling towards the camera for a group photo at a Pride event. Some are standing, some are sitting. People are holding Pride flags and Freedom Oklahoma signs. In the center is the Freedom Oklahoma logo and white text that reads "February Monthly Update" in all caps.
Tuesday, February 1st, 2022
Freedom Oklahoma exists because of the critical need to fight to protect 2SLGBTQ+ communities in Oklahoma policy spaces. Together, we’ve weathered awful attacks, while still managing to advance our lived equality on the ground. However, as we look to the 2nd Session of the 58th Oklahoma Legislative Session, this is maybe the most 2SLGBTQ+ targeted harm we’ve seen, at least in recent memory. We believe in our collective power to disrupt this harm, and it’s going to take all of us. Thursday, February 3, 2022, at 6 PM, we’ll host a legislative briefing. Ahead of that, here are the major legislative fights we're looking at in 2022:
Protect access to affirming care for Two Spirit and Transgender youth
Oklahoma continues to see efforts that would eliminate access to affirming health care for Transgender and Two Spirit people up to the age of 21, by criminalizing medical providers and banning treatment options. These are some of the most extreme political attacks. They display a fundamental lack of understanding of transgender young people and increase the potential for death by suicide among the most vulnerable members of our communities. These efforts restrict access to best-practice medical care for transgender youth. Care that is backed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and virtually all other leading medical authorities.
Stop library censorship
In 2022, Oklahoma will see legislation targeting books that have any information or representation of gender identity, gender expression, and sexuality, encouraging parents and guardians to censor school libraries, threatening teacher and librarian licensing in the process, and even creating legal space for schools to face financial penalties.
We know this legislation is tied closely to efforts like HB 1775 and HB 1888 which limit training, access, and information in ways that make government spaces less safe for 2SLGBTQ+ people, and that these efforts come at the intersection of efforts targeted in anti-Black racism and antisemitism. They are part of a broader effort to limit representation, learning, accessibility, and safety for 2SLGBTQ+ kids in Oklahoma schools.
Let kids play
Kids learn a lot of important lessons in sports: sportsmanship, leadership, confidence, self-discipline, self-respect, and what it means to be part of a team. When we tell transgender kids they cannot play on sports teams that affirm them, they miss out on this important childhood experience and all the lessons it teaches. The attacks we are seeing in this space use coded language about how they’re working to protect women and girls, when what they really do is ban transgender kids from playing sports. Oklahoma’s proposed legislation in this space goes furthest of any we have seen proposed, seeking to keep transgender kids out of sports teams through college. The reality is that these bills cannot possibly be enforced without implementing invasive physical inspections while ensuring that a smaller and smaller group of people can engage in the critical life experiences so many of us share through our time in sports.
Ensure state training considers all Oklahomans
All state-regulated entities should be actively engaging in diversity trainings, inclusive of gender and sexual diversity, to educate individuals on the systemic barriers and discrimination historically excluded groups and people marginalized because of their identities still face in workplaces and in institutions meant to serve all Oklahomans. Legislation that seeks to ban these trainings and remove this kind of coursework from school poses a threat to free speech and Title VII compliance.
Protect access to accurate name and gender markers
Having legal documents that accurately reflect a person’s name and gender identity are critical harm reduction efforts necessary to create safety for Two Spirit, transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse folks. Everything from airport security to receiving vaccines to encounters with law enforcement can be made much more dangerous when a person does not have the legal documents to match the way they exist in the world. In October 2020, Freedom Oklahoma launched its first name and gender marker change clinic. Through this program, we work to train law students in how to help people file briefs for name and gender marker changes in Oklahoma courts, and then facilitate clinic dates where they get to put those skills to use. In the face of this critical organizing effort, the ability to access this already arduous process is under attack. This legislative session, in response to an executive order from Governor Stitt, legislators are trying to create barriers for any name changes not related to adoption or marriage and any gender marker changes or X gender marker designations.
Fight dangerous attempts to enshrine so-called conversion therapy
There is clear agreement in the medical and mental health community that so-called conversion therapy is not a medical practice and when 2SLGBTQ+ young people are subjected to it, the outcomes are traumatic and harmful. While most of the country has already banned this practice or is working to do so, the Oklahoma Legislature is trying to enshrine this harmful practice in statute while preempting local government officials from making their own decisions about what is best for their constituents.
Stop Title II Violations Relative to School Bathrooms
School should provide a safe and affirming environment for all students to learn, but the Oklahoma legislature seems determined to rehash old fights that disrupt education settings at the expense of the most vulnerable students in our state. It has been made clear time and time again that reasonable accommodation must be made for students in regards to bathrooms. A student must have access to a bathroom that reflects their gender in the same way that any other student has access to a bathroom. For trans students, specifically, that means that Title II must be considered as it pertains to ADA accommodations.
These are the big buckets of work. There are shell bills we’re watching, too. And, as always, if there’s something you feel should be on our radar that isn’t, we welcome outreach to make sure we’re aware of it.
These are heavy fights ahead of us, and we know the volume of harmful legislation is designed so that people feel too overwhelmed to take action. But we’ve always won by doing this work together, and we’re committed to keeping you in the loop with what is happening at the legislature, with accurate updates rooted in action, not fear. We keep us safe. Together.
We want to note throughout session and beyond that, just the introduction of these bills can have a harmful impact on the mental health of 2SLGBTQ+ people, young Two Spirit, transgender, and nonbinary people especially. We want all 2SLGBTQ+ folks in Oklahoma to know you’re loved and valued–you are sacred and irreplaceable members of our community. Affirming help exists at any point if you need it, through organizations like Trans Lifeline (877-565-8860), the Trevor Project (call 1-866-488-7386 or text START to 678-678), and the LGBT Hotline (888-843-4564).
In solidarity,
Nicole McAfee (she/they)
Executive Director