In a massive blow to LGBTQ+ rights, Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt has signed another bill targeting trans youth.
On 25 May, the Republican official signed the horrific SB 615 into law a week after lawmakers in the state’s Senate and House of Representatives passed the bill with 38-7 vote.
Under the harmful legislation, schools will require students to use restrooms that reflect the gender on their original birth certificates.
The law will be enforced in both public schools and charter schools with students between pre-school and 12th grade.
The bill also states that students who don’t comply with the rules will be subjected to using a “single-occupancy restroom or changing room.”
If a school chooses not to follow the bill’s provisions, it will be subjected to a reduction in state funding and could face potential legal action from parents.
Due to the bill containing an emergency clause, SB 615 was immediately implemented into the state law.
Since approving the bill, LGBTQ+ activists have slammed Stitt and the harmful legislation, with some groups even threatening legal action.
In a statement, the Executive Director of Freedom Oklahoma, Nicole McAfee, said the bill violated Title IX of the Civil Rights Act.
“Over the last day we’ve heard people talk about school safety over and over again. But with a flick of his pen, Governor Stitt said that safety doesn’t extend to already vulnerable transgender and Two-Spirit young people,” McAfee told the Associated Press.
This bill will inevitably endanger the lives of Oklahomans.
Abortion rights are LGBTQ+ rights, and we can’t stop fighting. https://t.co/Kl8D6vYMvj
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) May 26, 2022
Human Rights Campaign State Legislative Director and Senior Counsel Cathryn Oakley echoed similar sentiments while also calling attention to the other states that have introduced anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
“What states like Oklahoma, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina have done time after time is finding new ways to attack these kids for their political gains among radical voters,” she said.
“Governor Stitt has repeatedly disregarded the real harms these bills will impose on Oklahoma’s youth. Transgender youth who cannot use the restroom at school are effectively denied access to their education.
“Legislation targeting transgender youth in this way is a violation of both federal civil rights law as well as the United States Constitution.”
SB 615 isn’t the only anti-LGBTQ+ bill that Governor Stitt has signed into law.
Earlier this year, he joined the growing number of states that have banned transgender women and girls from participating in sports within public schools, charter schools and public colleges.
Stitt also banned individuals from putting non-binary gender markers on their birth certificates, on 26 April.
Like SB 615, the legislation took effect immediately due to it passing with an emergency clause.
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