Freedom Oklahoma launches campaign against hateful anti-LGBT bills

By Rob Howard
Associate Editor

“A handful of legislators has decided that it is more important to marginalize the LGBTQ community, than it is to face the pressing problems that go as far as a One Billion dollar shortfall in a state that is actually crumbling in infrastructure,” said Troy Stevenson, Executive Director of Freedom Oklahoma in opening remarks at a press conference at the State Capitol Tuesday morning. 

“They would rather talk about how to harm a community, to tell us that members of our community will not be allowed to use a public restroom, or tell us that business owners should be allowed to exclude us from their businesses.”

Referring to bills in Indiana in 2015, and Arizona the year before that would allow businesses and individuals to discriminate against LGBTQ persons, based on their own religious beliefs, Stevenson cited news today that Indianapolis estimates that they lost $60 Million in income due to the discriminatory bills.

“The bill in Oklahoma is worse than that [Indiana] bill last year,” he said. He vowed to have a daily presence at the capitol. Freedom Oklahoma is already in contact with business leaders who opposed the Indiana law. “Just like happened in Indianapolis, we’ve already been in contact with our allies at the Human Rights Campaign and national organizations around the country. The same business leaders are in communication with us that were communicating with the people of Indiana, the same type of national outrage will happen here in Oklahoma if they decide to go forward with this legislation.”

Stevenson introduced Rev. Scott Foster, Pastor of the First United Presbyterian Church in Guthrie. Rev. Foster went to great lengths to refute the idea that defending religious freedom requires discriminating against others.

“The freedom of religion is a fundamental right in the United States. It’s so important, it’s so critical that it carries the highest priority. Religious freedom holds a hallowed and everlasting place in the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States,” said Rev. Foster.

“We all share great passion for preserving and protecting religious freedom. It’s never up for debate. Religious freedom lives in concert with our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, not at their expense. We are taught to protect fundamental values, to treat others the way we want to be treated, and to apply our constitution and the laws of the land equally for all people.

“However, certain groups are now using the guise of religious freedom to pressure our legislators into allowing them an exemption to Oklahoma law. They are attempting to legalize discrimination by allowing businesses, institutions and agencies that are religious to bypass the law.

“They will intentionally target those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and their families. Many people mistakenly believe that restoring religious freedom means protecting florists who refuse to sell flowers to gay couples. That’s not the case. Many of the laws have broad sweeping strokes, others are very specifically designed to prevent the freedoms of marriage, employment, housing and even public assembly.

“[These laws] threaten the very fabric of our great state. As a faith leader I believe that we all have the absolute and inalienable right to our faith in God or to the higher power of our choosing, and we have the right to act celebrate and act faithfully in those beliefs up to the point that our beliefs are harmful to other people.”

Rev. Foster concluded, “No person should live in fear that they may be denied equal protection under the law for their families, their jobs or their marriages. No institution, business or government should allow exceptions to our basic freedoms and bring harm to others, especially in the name of religion. Religious exemptions trample the very foundation of our country and our human truths.”

Stevenson cited two bills that specifically target the transgender community by telling them which restrooms they can use, or that they can’t use any restroom at all.

He introduced Austin Sims, a transgender man living in Oklahoma City. Citing the teaching of his grandfather, Sims said, “My grandfather, who taught me the importance of community, and giving back, is a respected member of the American Legion,” and active in his community in Moore. “I say that because I have that desire to serve people that he instilled in me.” Sims has served as a Detention officer in Cleveland County, as a staff member at various group homes throughout the Metro, and as a coordinator in an organization that works to provide a safe place, hope and opportunity for LGBT and homeless youth in our community.

“I’m alarmed by this legislation because the legislation does not live up to the values that I grew up with, and it does not live up to the Oklahoma standard. I hope that our legislators will focus on issues that will better benefit Oklahomans in the next legislative session.”

Ryan Kiesel, an attorney for the ACLU of Oklahoma, called the proposed laws “reprehensible and wreckless.” He said, “These hateful pieces of legislation have no place in a society that prides itself on liberty and equality, they are simply inconsistent with that.  

“Legislators have demonstrated in the last session that they can kill these pieces of legislation at the outset. We hope that they do that, but frankly, the ACLU of Oklahoma asks that they go further, and to publically denounce this campaign of discrimination against our fellow Oklahomans.

“It’s not enough that this type of legislation is killed ‘in smoke filled rooms’ … it’s not enough that they are killed behind closed doors…. It’s important that a statement is made, because otherwise, even if they do kill them, these legislative leaders by their silence will become co-conspirators in this campaign to discriminate against LGBTQ Oklahomans and their many allies.

“We ask them to change course. We ask the leaders in the Senate and House, and in the Governor’s office, to call these pieces of legislation what they are – hateful.”

Stevenson said that Freedom Oklahoma will fight these 27 or more pieces of legislation fiercely, calling on citizens to contact their Senators and Representative. And if the legislation is passed, and is signed by the Governor, Stevenson vowed, “We will litigate. We will see you in court.”

For a complete listing of the 25 bills that were known this morning before the press conference, visit www.gayly.com/nationally-unprecedented-slate-25-discriminatory-bills-filed-oklahoma.

Watch The Gayly, our website www.Gayly.com, and our Facebook page for continued coverage of these proposed pieces of hateful, discriminatory legislation.

The Gayly – January 26, 2016 @ 1:15 p.m.