OKLAHOMA CITY – LGBT advocates nationwide are extolling the defeat of 27 anti-gay bills filed this year in the Oklahoma Legislature.
Freedom Oklahoma Director Troy Stevenson said on Monday that over two dozen pieces of proposed discriminatory legislation failed after a key deadline passed last week.
The bills sought to deprive LGBT citizens of basic constitutional rights using two categories: measures targeting transgender people, and “religious freedom” bills that would have made it lawful for businesses to discriminate against LGBT citizens based on so-called “sincerely held religious beliefs.”
Stevenson credited the failed advancement of the anti-gay bills to LGBT equality advocates and straight allies who contacted legislators urging them to reject the measures, as well as progressive lawmakers who refused to back the bad legislation.
“We have seen a truly unprecedented level of community advocacy this legislative session, and fair-minded legislators – both Republicans and Democrats – have listened. There will be no anti-LGBTQ laws passed in Oklahoma this year,” said Stevenson in a Freedom Oklahoma Facebook post. “It is our greatest hope that going forward we will be fighting for positive change, rather than fighting back against discrimination. But no matter what, we will keep fighting until every Oklahoman is equal under the law, and in every walk of life.”
