How Okla. Plans to Use 'Religious Freedom' to Harass Trans Kids
Oklahoma Republicans want to impeach President Obama for protecting trans students. But first they want to make sure no God-fearing Christian student is forced to share a bathroom with a trans classmate.
BY SUNNIVIE BRYDUM
MAY 20 2016 6:25 PM EDT
With barely a week left in this years regular session, Republican lawmakers in Oklahoma have introduced two last-minute legislative efforts to penalize transgender students in the state.
Senate Bill 1619, introduced Thursday by Sen. Brian Bingman and House Speaker Jeff Hickman, aims to provide a so-called religious exemption for cisgender (nontrans) students who do not want to share a bathroom with a transgender student.
The legislation itself is unclear about its scope but outright rejects the very existence of transgender people, inaccurately declaring that sex is an immutable characteristic that is identified at birth by that individuals anatomy. The bill includes no mention of how schools should accommodate intersex or nonbinary individuals, who may have anatomy that cannot be readily categorized as strictly male or female.
Further, the bill falsely implies that allowing, for example, a transgender girl to use the womens restroom is equivalent to allowing a male to use the ladies room. Essentially, SB 1619 refuses to recognize that, as the Department of Justice recently explained, transgender men are men, and transgender women are women.
http://www.advocate.com/transgender/2016/5/20/how-oklahoma-plans-use-religious-freedom-harass-trans-kids
http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2015-16%20INT/SB/SB1619%20INT.PDF