Editor’s Note: This story mentions suicide. A list of resources is at the bottom of this story.
The Oklahoma state House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday that would ban gender-confirming health care for Oklahomans under 18 years old.
House Bill 2177, authored by Rep. Kevin West (R-OKC) and Rep. Jim Olsen (R-Roland), aims to restrict gender-confirming health care for minors, such as hormone replacement therapy and reassignment surgeries, in the entire state. The bill also threatens license revocation for medical professionals that provide gender-confirming care.
The measure passed along party lines, 80-18. The emergency clause attached to the bill also passed and would immediately ban gender-confirming care for minors in Oklahoma upon signature by the governor.
Multiple outbursts occurred from the viewing gallery throughout the bill’s debate, with Rep. Cyndi Munson (D-OKC) commenting on the reactions.
Someone was escorted out of the gallery while yelling after a question. There’s definitely a lot of passion and frustration from those watching in on Oklahoma politics today. pic.twitter.com/B8WaSOPIaE
— Payton May (@paytonnmay) February 28, 2023
“There is a physical reaction to the disrespect and the inability to listen to your constituents and care for them,” Munson said.
Rep. Mickey Dollens (D-OKC) said the bill was a war on parents, citing “the hypocrisy” from Gov. Kevin Stitt’s 2023 State of the State address.
“Who are we as elected officials … to tell parents across Oklahoma how to parent their children,” Dollens said. “(Stitt) said we will protect parents’ rights to raise their children without government intervention and always … stand up and defend individual freedoms over government control.”
Rep. Jared Deck (D-Norman) said the bill places conditionality on the existence of Oklahomans.
“We are sending a message that we are too ignorant to learn new opportunities and that we have disrespect for those who we see that we don't quite understand,” Deck said.
Hell yes @deckfornorman Too weak to accept diversity. That is the most real. Be better Oklahoma. #okleg https://t.co/V0SoStDNSW
— Cassi Peters (@cassidenaep) February 28, 2023
In her first debate on the House floor, Rep. Annie Menz (D-Norman) pointed to rainbow ribbon she was wearing and told a story of her childhood friend who was murdered because she was transgender.
“There’s not a day that goes by that my heart doesn’t break for people in the community who feel like they can’t walk the same streets the rest of us do and be themselves,” Menz said.
Rep. Menz, also on her first debate: “people sent us here to speak up for them. My heart breaks for people in our community who feel@like they can’t be themselves. The message this legislation sends is that you can’t be who you think you are.” /36 pic.twitter.com/ewPfWVrwOj
— John Waldron (@waldron4ok) February 28, 2023
Rep. Mauree Turner (D-OKC) said the bill’s emergency clause would force transgender Oklahomans to detransition if they lacked funds to go out of state. Turner also suggested that the bill would force health care providers who offer these gender-confirming care to leave the state.
“I do the work that I do because no Oklahoman is replaceable. The folks up in the gallery, the folks in our communities, none of them,” Turner said. “They deserve access to health care providers that want to stay.”
After the bill passed, activists in the viewing gallery screamed, “You’re killing children” toward the House floor. Many moved to the rotunda where chants of “trans lives matter” could be heard as legislators continued their session.
One advocate was detained after allegedly spraying water on Rep. Bob Culver (R-Tahlequah), who didn’t debate the bill but did vote in favor of it. The advocate later got into an altercation with a state trooper.
Last October, Stitt signed a bill barring OU Health from performing or offering certain gender-confirming care.
The Oklahoma state Senate passed a similar bill, Senate Bill 613, on Feb. 15. The bill would keep health care providers from offering certain gender-confirming health care to Oklahomans under the age of 18 and could be punishable by up to a $100,000 fine and/or 10 years in jail.
Freedom Oklahoma, American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma and Planned Parenthood Great Plains released a joint statement Tuesday after the bill passed, calling on the legislature to “end attack on best practice medical care for transgender Oklahomans.”
“HB 2177 is government overreach that forces medical detransition for transgender Oklahoma youth and threatens trans Oklahomans of all ages through dangerous intrusion into private insurance and healthcare funding,” Nicole McAfee, executive director of Freedom Oklahoma, wrote.
The Trevor Project released a statement by Troy Stevenson, director of state advocacy campaigns, opposing the consideration of the bill.
“This politically motivated attack on transgender and nonbinary young people’s ability to receive best-practice medical care goes against medical professional guidelines, and risks harming the mental health and well-being of young people across the state,” Stevenson wrote.
The statement cited research showing that positive mental health outcomes stem from transgender medical care, such as reducing suicide risk.
The Trevor Project’s 2022 U.S. National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health found that 55 percent of transgender and nonbinary youth in Oklahoma seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, with 20 percent attempting suicide.
This story was edited by Alexia Aston, Karoline Leonard and Jazz Wolfe.
