OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — An Oklahoma lawmaker has filed three bills relating to gender identity and medical gender transition, including a bill that would ban people under the age of 18 from undergoing medical procedures for gender transition in Oklahoma.
According to a press release, these bills were filed by Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, to “fight the dangerous and destructive woke gender ideology of the left.”
“For years, Senate leadership has dismissed the threat that the left’s gender ideology poses to our state,” Dahm said in the release. “However, with instances of ‘family friendly’ drag shows, drag queen story hours, and the discovery of the gender transition program at OU Medical, it’s past time we stop this craziness. The following bills will provide Senate leadership with a way to fulfill the promises made during special session and end the practice of gender destruction in our state.”
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Under Senate Bill 250, those who provide gender transition procedures would not receive reimbursement through Medicaid or any state funding.
Under Senate Bill 251, the only allowable applications of the terms or definitions of “gender” or “sex” would be “male (XY), female (XX), and intersex for those born with a mutation causing such abnormality.” Public entities in the state, including boards of education, would not be allowed to use any other application.
Senate Bill 252 would ban people under the age of 18 from undergoing medical procedures for gender transition in Oklahoma. Healthcare professionals who intentionally perform medical procedures for gender transition on someone under the age of 18 would be subject to professional discipline and may lose their license or certificate.
“If those under the age of eighteen don’t have the mental capacity to vote, drink, or smoke, they certainly should not be making irreversible decisions to mutilate and destroy their body,” Dahm said in the release. “In Oklahoma, we are going to protect children from those who would prey on their insecurities for profit.”
These three bills come in the wake of House Bill 1011 and Senate Bill 129, which seek to prohibit healthcare professionals from providing medical procedures for gender transition to people under the age of 21 and 26 respectively.
House Bill 1011, authored by Rep. Jim Olsen, R-Roland, was introduced on Dec. 1, 2022.
[ Bill filed to prohibit gender transition procedures from being provided to those under 21 ]
“It’s irresponsible for anybody in health care to provide or recommend life-altering surgeries that may later be regretted,” Olsen said in a press release found on his House of Representatives page. “We know there are some people who undergo the gender transition process and later identify as their biological sex. Performing irreversible procedures on young people can do irreparable harm to them mentally and physically later in life.”
Senate Bill 129, also known as the Millstone Act., was authored by Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, and was introduced on Jan. 4, 2023.
[ Bill filed to ban gender transition procedures for those under 26 ]
“We have a sacred duty to protect our children from those who wish to do them harm. Senate Bill 129 is designed to protect our children from those who want to benefit financially at their expense. Child abuse is a felony in our state and mutilating a young person’s genitalia should be viewed no differently. The Millstone Act will hold those who perform child mutilation accountable by making such activity a felony. Those guilty of such a heinous crime will be both legally and financially liable,” Bullard said in a press release.
That release also said the bill was named in reference to Mathew 18:6, “but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depths of the sea,” the released quoted.