House lawmakers advanced legislation Wednesday that would ban any Oklahoma state government entity, including public schools, from recognizing Pride Month and from displaying LGBTQ+ pride flags.
The bill passed the House floor along party lines despite concerns it would harm and minimize LGBTQ+ Oklahomans.
The House also approved a prohibition on changes to the biological sex on a person’s birth certificate. Both bills continue to the state Senate for consideration.
Other legislation that could impact transgender youth in foster care and transgender individuals’ use of restrooms and changing rooms in state-funded buildings appeared on the House’s agenda Wednesday.
“I think it would be difficult enough for any single one of these to be on an agenda, but to see these sort of stacked throughout the day and just watch this harm move through as if it is business as usual — which I guess to a certain extent it is at this point — I think is tiring and is definitely pushing a lot of folks towards feelings of despair in this moment,” said Nicole McAfee, executive director of the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Freedom Oklahoma.
House Bill 1219 would allow “only flags pursuant to state or federal law” on state property. The bill’s author, Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore, said flags of any kind would be allowed in individuals’ personal space, including elected officials’ offices and teachers’ classrooms.
West filed a similar bill in 2024 to ban state displays of pride flags, but it was never heard on the House floor.
“This bill does not stop somebody from identifying how they wish to identify,” he said during floor debate Wednesday. “There is a straight pride flag which also would be prohibited under this law. This law cuts both ways, and it’s all about protecting state funds. It has nothing to do with marginalizing any particular group.”
The legislation also would bar any state government entity from using state funds to participate in events or activities that promote LGBTQ+ Pride Month and from endorsing it in any formal communication, including social media posts.
The bill prompted lengthy debate from the House Democratic caucus.
Rep. Michelle McCane, D-Tulsa, said the legislation marginalizes and erases LGBTQ+ Oklahomans like herself. McCane said she is pansexual.
“I’m sick of it,” she told fellow lawmakers. “I’m a human being, regardless of who I am attracted to, of who I’m in a relationship with, of what my gender identity is, and I deserve, just like everyone else, to also be able to celebrate myself.”
West filed HB 1225, as well, to ban Oklahomans from changing the sex designation on their birth certificates.
He said birth certificates should not change over time.
“They are historical records of the facts present at the time of birth, and the state has a legitimate interest in preserving the accuracy and integrity of those records,” he said.
The state already prohibited gender markers from being changed on Oklahoma driver’s licenses and banned gender-neutral birth certificates. McAfee said HB 1225 is the “nail in the coffin” for transgender Oklahomans’ having accurate and updated information on their personal documents.
House Democrats unanimously voted against both of West’s bills.
“The government should not be choosing how you affiliate, how you identify or if you go through gender reassignment surgery, what your body appears to be,” Rep. Jared Deck, D-Norman, said while debating against the birth certificate measure. “To me this is simply about self determination. We are saying as a body if we pass this bill that you no longer have the right to determine who you are.”
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