Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 3 into law Tuesday, ending certain gender-confirmation programs for minors at OU Health, and called for a statewide ban on the treatment.
SB 3 gifted over $108 million in American Rescue Plan funds to OU Health for a pediatric mental health facility, the utilization of electronic records and the creation of a Stephenson Cancer Center in Tulsa. The bill also prohibited the hospital system from performing or offering certain gender-confirmation treatments for minors. The bill went into effect immediately after being signed.
Stitt said in a Tuesday statement that this bill is protecting “healthy children” from gender-confirming treatment.
“It is wildly inappropriate for taxpayer dollars to be used for condoning, promoting, or performing these types of controversial procedures on healthy children,” Stitt said. “We cannot turn a blind eye to what’s happening all across our nation, and as governor I will not allow life-altering transition surgeries on minor children in the state of Oklahoma.”
I just signed SB3 to prevent gender transition services for minors at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital at OU Health.This is just the first step.I am calling on the Legislature to ban all irreversible gender transition surgeries and hormone therapies on minors statewide.
— Governor Kevin Stitt (@GovStitt) October 4, 2022
OU Health announced on Sept. 27 that it would cease certain gender-confirming treatments ahead of the bill’s signature. Stitt said this was not enough. He has asked the Oklahoma Legislature to ban gender-confirming treatment on minors across the state, including hormone therapies and surgeries.
In a special session on Sept. 29, the Oklahoma House of Representatives debated passing the bill, with many house Democrats saying gender-confirming treatment is basic health care. During the session, protesters and activists gathered in the Oklahoma state Capitol to listen to the debate.
After the bill was announced, The Trevor Project condemned the Oklahoma Legislature, calling the bill “outrageous” and exploiting transgender people for “political points.”
Rep. Mauree Turner (R-OKC) and Nicole McAfee, executive director of Freedom Oklahoma, agreed that this bill is dangerous. Turner urged Oklahomans to get out and vote to end the prolonged, targeted attacks on the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
The Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health found that one in five transgender and nonbinary youth in the United States attempted suicide, with 53 percent seriously considering suicide in the past year. In 2021, a peer-reviewed study by The Trevor Project reported that gender-confirmation therapy has recently led to 40 percent lower depression rates and suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary youth.
