A Thursday ruling by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma rejected a motion to temporarily block a state ban on gender-confirming health care for people under 18.
In a statement Wednesday, Rep. Mauree Turner (D-Oklahoma City) said transgender youth in Oklahoma are being attacked and that it’s being continued with a state federal court rejecting a request to temporarily halt Senate Bill 613 from being enforced. SB 613 was signed into law by Gov. Kevin Stitt in May after being added to the House agenda last-minute in late April.
“This will continue to chip away at all of our freedom to choose health care that works for us, as well as drive more physicians and physician assistants out of the state,” Turner wrote in the statement.
Turner wrote that laws like SB 613 are made to get rid of gender non-conforming Oklahomans, but that these laws limit access to health care for all Oklahomans.
“We have already seen some of our state’s top doctors in pediatric care leave Oklahoma due to the legislature’s relentless onslaught of hate, bigotry, and targeted attacks on their professional medical expertise,” Turner wrote.
In June, a federal judge in Arkansas struck down the ban on gender-confirming health care for minors in the state, setting the precedent for gender non-conforming advocates in Oklahoma to try their own case at the federal level. Turner wrote they are thankful for legal advocates such as the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Oklahoma, Lambda Legal and Jenner & Block for taking the law to court.
“This is nothing more than transphobia, and bigotry in the place of policy written by the authors of this legislation,” Turner wrote. “While Oklahomans don't have a living wage, healthcare is vanishing, and access to affordable housing is nowhere to be found.”
There are real issues to worry about in Oklahoma, Turner wrote, including the survival of gender non-conforming children and access to necessary health care.
“Everyone who makes the decision to live openly are not only worth fighting for, they are worth living,” Turner wrote. “I know the beauty of our communities and I will keep fighting.”
This story was edited by Alexia Aston and Taylor Jones. Mary Ann Livingood and Grace Rhodes copy edited this story.
