Freedom Oklahoma

The bill advances with a 75-15 vote, with at least one Democrat (Schreiber) joining the Republican majority in support of the bill.

Now he says he is just speaking to the portion about not charging any parent with child abuse for abusing their trans children by refusing to acknowledge their gender.

Harris says this is what the Legislature should be doing because it lets parents parent how they want to (but these are literally kids being placed in their custody by the state).

McCane saying that potential foster and adoptive parents should put the well being of the child over their personal beliefs at all times. And this bill gives permission for adults to not do that, to the detriment of the well-being of kids.

We're still watching (unfortunately). Now HB 3586, a bill by Rep Harris that puts trans youth in danger of harmful foster and adoption placements. With no questions, we are moving to debate with Rep McCane debating against and Rep Harris debating for.

The session is still going, but we've reached the max time we can spend in the building with some sense of hope intact. So, updates will continue with us watching the live stream, as the remaining bills on our tracker scheduled to be heard come up.

They just announced that dinner will be served to members in 10-15 minutes. We can expect it to unfortunately be a long night of bill hearings.

And HB 1219 Kevin West's second bill of the day targeting harm at 2SLGBTQ+ folks passes on party lines by a vote of 74-17. With an emergency attached to ensure it goes into effect before pride 2026. Despite the author stating he didn't know when pride was.

The current chair (Rep Harris) tells Munson to keep debate on the bill. The current chair also uses a fake Voldermort wand replica at his desk to push the button to vote on bills. Just in case you're wondering where he stands on trans rights.

Munson talking about the ways this disrupts suicide prevention resources targeting 2SLGBTQ+ youth particularly, and the harm that it creates to remove the limited resources that exist.

Leader Munson closes debate. She thanks the chair for his attention, as the room remains about 2/3 empty. She says it's disappointing because these attacks continue to arise again and again, suggesting that folks can't even sit through to hear the impact of the harm they're about to endorse.

Rep Waldron starts debate by talking about the death of Nex Benedict, and that this bill was originally introduced and tabled because of the news cycle focusing on the harm of anti-2SLGBTQ+ policy in Oklahoma at the time.

Deck says that the issue is that we're talking about pride in this body in the same way queer folks were talked about when pride happened.

Deck begins debate by dispelling the myth that pride started as a celebration, noting that pride started as the response to criminalization of queer existence, of the police attacking 2SLGBTQ+ folks at the Stonewall Inn.

McCane notes in debate that this bill also limits a Juneteenth flag from being flown.

McCane says if this bill was really about ensuring state entities spend money only on their purpose, that's what the bill would say. But instead it is a bill that singles out and targets 2SLGBTQ+ folks especially.

McCane says she knows many of her colleagues are old enough to remember the beginning of the AIDS crisis, and the number of community members we lost because of hate and stigma targeted at queer people. And that we're allowing that hate and stigma to drive policy in this body again.

She says that she's not trying to convince folks to support 2SLGBTQ+ folks, but just to recognize our basic humanity and stop this policy that singles out and attacks us.

McCane says she assumes folks are as tired of hearing her talk about queer issues as she has talked about them. That she's had to talk more about queer issues in this building than in the entire rest of her life (because of the hostile policy attacking our community).

We'll note that the chamber is largely empty of majority party members as debate takes place.

Pogemiller begins debate, noting the bill is bigger than flags. That ultimately it limits the ability to celebrate people who are neighbors here in Oklahoma.

We have Deck, McCane, Munson, Pogemiller, and Waldron debating against the bill. And Kevin West debating for.

Rep Dollens asks if a queer teacher would be able to display a pride flag. Kevin West says he believes they would. Again, it's in the lack of certainty we find the harm.

In response to a question from McCane, Kevin West says that he believes state agencies should be using their money for their purpose, and not for things "a large portion of the state of Oklahoma doesn't agree with or need to see."

Munson asks what the author's issue is with pride. He said it's been awhile since he "saw it" (pride? queer people?) but that it would be the same issue "many people would have."

Kevin West says as long as it doesn't promote 2SLGBTQ+ pride or similar events. Which doesn't really seem to answer the question at all.

Leader Munson asks about the no state funding portion of the bill related particularly to targeting messaging and support to 2SLGBTQ+ folks for things like suicide prevention, HIV prevention and treatment, or MPox vaccinations.

And that he is limiting those in the queue to one question and one follow up.

The chair announces he's closing the queue to limit further questions on the bill.

McCane follows up saying this doesn't differentiate between personal space/offices and other space in a state building. Kevin West said staff assured him that it was clear enough.