Freedom Oklahoma Statement on Pushback to a Legal Settlement Creating a Process for X-marker Birth Certificates in Oklahoma
October 21, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Nicole McAfee, Executive Director, 830-334-1660, nicole@freedomoklahoma.org
OKLAHOMA CITY – As the LGBTQ2S+ community recognizes Spirit Day, taking a stand against bullying LGBTQ2S+ youth, elected officials across Oklahoma are using their platforms to spread inflammatory talking points and making uniformed promises to target the rights of Two Spirit, nonbinary, and gender diverse Oklahomans to access legal documents that accurately reflect who they are. Freedom Oklahoma issued the following statement:
The following is attributable to Nicole McAfee, Freedom Oklahoma Executive Director:
“Ultimately, the settlement the Oklahoma State Department of Health announced recently is not a matter of if people have the right to have X-gender markers in Oklahoma, but rather about the process of how. People need government documents for everything from securing housing or employment to receiving state identification cards or receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. We as a community are safer and better equipped to serve one another when people have access to documents that accurately reflect who they are.
We have seen statements from several offices that seem to double down on misinformation and inflammatory talking points. We acknowledge that as we enter an election year, the LGBTQ2S+ community is always braced for elected officials to target us in order to score partisan, political points. But those words are empty, and not reflective of the rich communities we exist in across the state. Nonbinary and gender diverse people have always been on this land, long before statehood. We recognize when bullies want us to back down and be silent, but we’ll continue to fight for a state where we have full equality under the law and the safety to thrive.
The pushback against X-gender markers is only one of many targeted attacks announced for media attention in recent days. And while we stand ready to respond to executive and legislative pushback, we’ll also continue to do so with an eye towards educating and engaging our community and allies, including with an Instagram live discussion on Interim Studies Thursday October 28 at 12noon CDT.”
Pronouns:
Nicole McAfee: she/they
We know that stories amplifying attacks on LGBTQ2S+ people have a measurable negative impact on mental health. We ask that stories covering this topic include information to access LGBTQ2S+ affirming mental health support, such as the Trevor Project hotline at 1-866-488-7386 or online at thetrevorproject.org/get-help
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