Death at Oklahoma state capitol

Bipartisan effort kills record number of anti-LGBT bills.

Oklahoma City – In January, the new legislative session began with a record 18 anti-LGBT bills being introduced – a national record. As of today, all of those bills are now officially dead for this year. 

Freedom Oklahoma applauds the bipartisan effort to stop this discriminatory agenda proposed by a small handful of legislators, and special interest groups. Because of strong leadership - from both Republicans and Democrats – all of these bills have been stopped. Oklahoma avoided the firestorm of outrage that was so damaging to Indiana and Arkansas.  

“We live in a global economy, and as we saw in Indiana, this type of discriminatory legislation is bad for business," said Representative Lee Denney (R) – Speaker Pro Tempore of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. "We should be concentrating on the real problems facing our state.”

“Oklahoma was ground zero this session for anti-LGBT legislation, and unlike other states we defeated everything proposed," said Representative Emily Virgin (D) – Deputy Minority Leader of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. "I am proud to stand with the LGBT community, and look forward to a day when our legislature bans discrimination rather than trying to codify it. “ 

"Freedom Oklahoma applauds the bipartisan efforts to stop 18 discriminatory bills," said Freedom Oklahoma Executive Director, Troy Stevenson. "Never before has any state had so many anti-LGBT bills, and never before has any state had so much success in defeating them. We thank fair-minded legislators on both sides of the aisle for standing up for freedom and equality."  

Freedom Oklahoma is Oklahoma's statewide LGBT advocacy organization, and a proud member of the Equality Federation. Freedom Oklahoma is the unified organization resulting from the merger of The Equality Network, a 501 (c) (4) organization that lobbies for pro-equality legislation and public policies; and the Cimarron Alliance Foundation, a 501 (c) (3) organization that engaged in public education in support of the LGBT community.