ABOVE: Photo via The Los Angeles Blade.
The Republican-held majority Oklahoma State Senate enacted passage of multiple anti-LGBTQ bills this week including a 37 to 7 vote on Senate Bill 2, which would restrict transgender girls from playing on school sports teams that match their gender identity.
SB 2 now heads to Republican Governor John Stitt’s desk where, if signed, it would become the third anti-transgender sports ban enacted into law this year.
In addition to SB 2, the Senate also passed two additional anti-LGBTQ bills, SB 9 and SB 1100 that continue to advance through the state legislature. If enacted, these bills would ban materials about LGBTQ people and topics in the classroom and restrict access to gender-affirming documents for nonbinary youth in the state.
“Today, the Oklahoma Senate voted to advance three anti-LGBTQ+ bills regulating school sports, identity documents, and curriculum. While their subjects were different, their target was the same: transgender and nonbinary youth. Lawmakers added these attacks to the agenda behind closed doors in the early hours of the morning, part of a coordinated strategy to use trans youth as political pawns,” said Sam Ames, Director for Advocacy and Government Affairs at The Trevor Project. “
“This legislation offers solutions to problems that simply do not exist in Oklahoma, but the harm it can cause LGBTQ+ youth is very real,” Ames continues. “We urge the governor to follow the actions of governors in Utah and Indiana and veto the anti-trans sports ban that now heads to his desk. We also urge the Oklahoma House to reject SB 9 and SB 1100 in support of their trans and nonbinary constituents.”
According to a recent poll conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of The Trevor Project, 85% of transgender and nonbinary youth — and two-thirds of all LGBTQ+ youth (66%) — say recent debates about state laws restricting the rights of transgender people have negatively impacted their mental health.
