The Latest Anti-Gay Oklahoma Bills Are Almost Too Crazy to Believe

[Behind the Aegis]

Outrageous anti-LGBTQ bills are now a fixture of the American legislative landscape. At the start of each year, extremist legislators come forward with a slew of discriminatory proposals, ranging from cleverly underhanded to openly deranged. Oklahoma’s latest bills fall on the latter side of that spectrum. In addition to some typical “religious liberty” legislation that would let businesses refuse service to gays—par for the course at this point—Oklahoma Republicans have cooked up some fascinatingly cruel bills. Let’s examine them one by one, ranked in terms of sadistic ingenuity.

1. HB 1598: Protecting ex-gay conversion therapy.

2. HB 3044: Preventing depressed and suicidal queer youth from seeing a gay-affirmative therapist.

3. SB 733: Forbidding HIV-positive people from getting married.

more...

[hr]

A reminder: Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Transgender are people too! Marriage equality is wonderful, I should know! However, it was not the last fight for LGBT people.

29 states do NOT prohibit housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
15 states do NOT record hate crimes against GLBT persons.
29 states do NOT protect LGBT in regards to public accommodations.
The lists go on!

GLBT rights are human and civil rights!

[Fumesucker]

1. I'm sorry you have to put up with these cretins, that's horrible

[Behind the Aegis]

2. I appreciate it!

I am very fortunate none of those bills would affect me or my husband, but what really scares me, is they will affect GLBT youth, the disenfranchised, and those who are "on the edge". Though, of all the other things I listed, sadly, Oklahoma is affected by those lack of rights. I am usually the "worrywart" in my house. If I can imagine something bad happening, I have seen it, planned for it, and expect it; even if it never comes. When Oklahoma was finally cleared for "gay" marriage, it was my husband who was worried. What would happen when it was announced in the paper? It made me so sad and angry that someone who is usually so carefree and happy was worried about something which was supposed to be a happy occasion.

He got over it. Now, he's mine!

I just hope people see things aren't over. There is still much to do in the way of GLBT equality.

[brer cat]

15. It is appalling

that we keep having to fight the same fights over and over. Whether LGBT, women, or people of color, every step forward seems to send the sharks into a frenzy.

What worries me the most is the horrible added pressure on LGBT youth. Adolescent angst is bad enough without having them painted as some kind of "other" who has to hide such a fundamental part of themselves. It is no wonder that depression and suicide are so prevalent.

On a brighter note, the teen sometimes-neighbor who spent the summer confiding in us because he was afraid for his fundamentalist Baptist relatives to know he is gay, was outed to his family and the world didn't come to an end. We saw him yesterday and he greeted us with sparkling eyes and a big grin to tell us he had a date for the basketball game. How normal!

[deathrind]

3. OMG...

Text from the HB1598 bill...

Electroshock, Electroconvulsive, Touching, Pornography, Vomit-Induction...this is actually considered "Therapy"?!?

I knew the so called "anti-gay" therapy was controversial but I did not realize that it was pulled straight out of the Inquisition.

OMG...

"Aversion therapy” means any counseling by a mental health provider that exposes or asks a client or patient to undergo physical pain, such as electroshock or electroconvulsive therapy, touch therapy, pornography exposure or vomit-induction therapy, in order to change sexual behaviors or gender-identity expressions and/or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex."

The sponsor of this bill is a twisted individual.

[yellerpup]

7. All those remedies add up to TORTURE.

Perpetrated on MINORS. I don't see any adult signing up for such 'therapy.'

[Volaris]

9. A Clockwork Orange is only a filmic masterpiece if you make it to the END.

Getting a torture-hardon and then turning it off halfway through to go rub one out rather misses the point

[deathrind]

16. Ummmm, if you say so...

I have never seen it. I have heard it is rather terrible so I will leave that one to your opinion.

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

Damn.

[merrily]

5. I don't know what to do about states outside my geographical area, except to give to HRC

(for me) or some similar organization (maybe for others) and hope they fight successfully.

I live in Massachusetts and am not aware of any crazy statutes about any minority group or women here. I'm not saying everyone's behavior is perfect. Even Rep. Lynch (D) was no prize on issues relevant to women and the LGBTQ community. However, when he ran against Markey, Lynch got more liberal because statewide elections here are different from the district he had then.

On laws, however, Massachusetts has done very well relative to other states, esp. for a state that has had large and devout religious populations, esp. Irish and Italian Catholics.

[dsc]

10. actually Mass was one of the states with a sodomy law when SCOTUS overturned them in 2003

[merrily]

11. I posted in 2016, tho. Do you know of anything more current that I should be working on?

[dsc]

14. you said they were good on laws

that is one point where they weren't. I also don't think they have banned conversion therapy for kids yet which should be done.

[Betty Karlson]

6. That lists reads like a murder conspiracy:

1. Make sure that young GLBT can be subjected to depressing circumstances that will burden them with low self-worth for years to come

2. Make sure that they don't get the psychological help they need to overcome that burden.

3. Make sure to deny them rights after they have, in their low self-worth, exposed themselves to dangerous sexual behaviour (directly related to low self-worth and / or concomittant drug-use).


It amounts to premeditated murder, really. May God damn these legislators.

[elias49]

8. "queer youth"? Is that verbatim?

That is pathetic. Some of the mid-west is truly disturbing. I feel like they are a different species.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

12. Without reading beyond the headline, I can tell you that no, they're not.

(On reading): nope, this is just common-or-garden far-right American craziness. Craziness like this isn't even *rare* in state legislatures, sadly. There are a *lot* of crazy people in America, and many of them appear to gravitate to the state legislatures of red states.

This is one of the reasons why my hackles rise every time someone talks about localism and devolution as being good and centralisation as being bad.

I'm not sure what a far-right piece of state legislation in the USA would have to look like in order to be too crazy for me to believe it.

[Faux pas]

13. Kickin' with disgust

and sadness

[awoke_in_2003]

17. We must be vigilent...

because they will never give up. Look at how they keep nibbling away at Roe v Wade.

[beam me up scottie]

18. K & R for a timely reminder.

The fight is not over, thank you for reminding us.