OKLAHOMA CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed the state’s “Women’s Bill of Rights” into law on May 31, establishing a set of new provisions aimed at preventing transgender activists from undermining the welfare or interests of actual females.
HB 1449 codifies objective, biology-based definitions of male, female, man, woman, mother, father, and sex for use across state law, to prevent ambiguities from being exploited to encompass “gender identity.”
“Any policy, program, or statute that prohibits sex discrimination shall be construed to forbid unfair treatment of females or males in relation to similarly situated members of the opposite sex,” it says. “The state or its political subdivisions shall not be prohibited from establishing distinctions between sexes when such distinctions are substantially related to an important government objective, including, but not limited to, biology, privacy, safety, or fairness.”
The new law further states that the term “equal” as applied to sex “shall not be construed to mean same or identical, and to differentiate between the sexes shall not necessarily be construed to be treating the sexes unequally.”
The new law, meant to settle disputes including sex-specific restrooms, athletic teams, and more, “is a very simple rule with very simple language pushing back at a very incomprehensible assault on reality,” said Republican state Sen. Shane Jett, ABC affiliate KOCO reports. It also codifies an executive order the governor issued last year doing the same.
READ: Oklahoma governor signs order banning gender-confused men from female bathrooms, prisons
Conservatives warn that forcing females to share intimate facilities such as bathrooms, showers, or changing areas with members of the opposite sex violates their privacy rights, subjects them to needless emotional stress, and gives male predators a viable pretext to enter female bathrooms or lockers by simply claiming transgender status.
Moreover, evidence shows that reinforcement of a child’s gender confusion carries severe mental and emotional harms. The problem was put on full display in Virginia in 2021, where since-fired ex-Loudoun County Public Schools superintendent Scott Ziegler was found to have covered up the rape of a female student by a “transgender” classmate in a girls’ bathroom that had damaging implications for the LGBT movement.
Allowing gender-confused individuals to compete in opposite-sex sports, meanwhile, is promoted by the left as a matter of “inclusivity,” but critics note that indulging “transgender” athletes undermines the original rational basis for having sex-specific athletics in the first place, thereby depriving female athletes of recognition and professional or academic opportunities, as well as undermining female players’ basic safety and privacy rights by forcing them to share showers and changing areas with members of the opposite sex.
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There have been numerous high-profile examples in recent years of men winning women’s competitions, and research affirms that physiology gives males distinct athletic advantages that cannot be negated by hormone suppression.
In a 2019 paper published by the Journal of Medical Ethics, New Zealand researchers found that “healthy young men [do] not lose significant muscle mass (or power) when their circulating testosterone levels were reduced to (below International Olympic Committee guidelines) for 20 weeks,” and “indirect effects of testosterone” on factors such as bone structure, lung volume, and heart size “will not be altered by hormone therapy”; therefore, “the advantage to [gender-confused men] afforded by the [International Olympic Committee] guidelines is an intolerable unfairness.”
Stitt and Oklahoma have taken multiple stands against the transgender lobby’s demands in recent years, including banning males from female restrooms and prisons, prohibiting gender “transition” surgeries and chemicals for minors, and vetoing taxpayer funding for PBS over LGBT propaganda targeted at children.