Let me begin by noting that I have used painfully restrained language.

I got the Transgender students their rights in the Oklahoma City Public schools by getting sexual orientation and gender identity added to district policies on bullying, harassment, and nondiscrimination, and for 12 years that has caused no problems. It was not an easy thing to do, but no matter the bad moments and the length of time it took, the end result could save lives.

Anyone who needed to had time to learn the truth about Transgender people in school situations during those twelve years. It was quantitative and measurable proof that inclusion caused no harm and this could dispel the fears, legitimate and cartoonish, of those who give meaning to the phobia in Homophobia.

I watched as those who claim to be the lead advocates for Gay rights in the state and nationally ignored that reality and let the state legislature and the governor take those rights away.

This past Wednesday Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill that requires students at public schools and public charter schools to use restrooms and locker rooms that match the sex listed on their birth certificates in pre-K through 12th grade.

Any Transgender student who does not want to comply with a law that ignores their reality, reduces Trans Students to a urine disposal system, and is merely the expression of the obsession older conservative men have about other people’s private lives and sexual activity must use “a single-occupancy restroom or changing room” provided by the school.

Kids can’t safely come out in such an atmosphere that this law exemplifies, but the state is forcing them to be ripped out of their safe closet as other kids will have no doubt as to why a particular student is using the special bathroom. This could only become safe if other students just chose to use that bathroom regardless of their gender to make a point.

Although most bills passed by legislatures have a grace period between passage and implementation of a law, Oklahoma has a practice of having bills kick in immediately in the case of emergency situations. Trans kids using the appropriate bathroom, being considered an emergency, this law begins right away.

No one could cite any instances that would have made this an emergency, these were simply assumptions that could have been dispelled if the inclusivity of the Oklahoma City Public School policies had been presented as evidence to the contrary.

If the Oklahoma City Public Schools has had inclusive language for twelve years without problems, and no one in the state house could point to one problem with Trans kids using the appropriate restroom, there is no emergency.

The state effectively removed gender identity from the Oklahoma City Public Schools district policy because schools and districts that don’t comply with the new law can have a portion of their state funding cut and could be sued by parents.

Parents are deputized to report on other people’s children or have their children report to them about other children.

In March of this year the governor signed a bill banning Transgender women and girls from competing on sports teams at public schools, public charter schools, and public colleges in the state that are not consistent with their gender as listed on the birth certificate long before anything other than the child survived the birthing process would be learned about the child.

In this they showed their lack of knowledge, their refusal to learn facts, and their misogyny as there was no provision dealing with Transgender men and boys in the bill. Apparently the Trans-men are not a threat to the other males on the team because girls are weaker, while Trans-girls are men in petticoats.

In April he signed a law banning nonbinary gender markers on birth certificates in the state.

The reaction was swift and predictable.

The major organizations who opposed these bills never once brought up that the Oklahoma capitol city’s own school district had had inclusion for 12 years with none of the assumed problems having taken place.

While those supporting the Anti-Trans bills presented fears and speculations about all the negatives that might happen, the Gay Community and those organizations they trusted to protect them had measurable, quantifiable, and experiential proof that Trans students are not the problem and their fears will not materialize but chose to ignore this in favor of bullet points and speeches by the elites of the community.

One such organization, Freedom Oklahoma, ignored repeated requests to present the proof, and even when it was notified multiple times these past few months that the Class of 22 had gone 12 years without problems as the first students in the state to have gone through the first to twelfth grades with the inclusive language and had time to present that in formation, it has yet to even respond to the reception of the multiple emails beyond the standard reflex notice you get after posting a message on their contact page, “someone will get back to you shortly”, no one ever did nor was the information used.

The laments began as expected

“There is no legitimate reason to enact this legislation. This cruelty for the sake of cruelty, at the expense of our vulnerable students.”

It was the disconnect in the rest of the statement that stood out.

After withholding information that resulted from a 12-year trouble free inclusion of gender identity on school policy that had been preceded by advocacy that took over a decade, the statement went on to declare,

“Be assured, this fight is not over. We’ll show up in every venue we can to keep Trans and Two Spirit students safe.”

The fight was over 12 years ago.

The legislators and the governor did not do this without help, help from the very people trusted to do the right thing.

Why didn’t anyone point out that from Dec 2009 to the present the Oklahoma City Public Schools had sexual orientation and gender identity in its school policies with no problems.

Freedom Ok forgets that for those 12 years Trans kids had protection and no one bothered to point that out, and, because of that, the Trans kids lost what they had in OKC and what other school systems in the state could have had when they saw this as a good thing.

They blew it and silence gave Stitt the win.

Stillwater Oklahoma removed bathroom restrictions six years ago with no subsequent problems. It was the only example of inclusivity used by those opposing the bill. Adding that to Oklahoma City might have been effective, but, no.

Two school systems with inclusive language, one twice as long as the other, having no problems, would have been good evidence against the Transphobia.

Trans kids WERE protected. I know they were. The proof that inclusivity caused no harm was there.

In Oklahoma City Public Schools Trans kids had their rights.

Now, no Trans student in the state has them now.

The Gay Community in Oklahoma, especially the organizations and “leaders” they trusted and those who put everything in their hands,  is just as responsible for the Trans kids losing rights as Stitt is.

There is blood on more than the hands of the legislature and the governor.

We allowed them to take away Trans students’ rights.

THE ONES THEY HAD.

But, there is an upside for the national groups that claim they are the experts that the locals should defer to, an upside that does not benefit those who need it but can be used for fundraising and agitating for public relations and the competition for each national to be a hero. Among examples I can present is the nationals’ sacrificing the Transgender citizens in Massachusetts a few years ago to having to wait to get their rights somewhere down the road so an exclusionary Gay Rights ordinance could be passed and credit taken. The fear was that including Transgender people in the original bill might have the bill fail. Hence the sacrifice. A few years later the state legislature passed a Trans Rights bill, which had to be defended by the vote of the people a few years later  when conservative politicians employed groups from out of state to have Trans Rights subject to a referendum on the ballot. Now the nationals could claim two victories. And they did.

The lamentation of Freedom Oklahoma and the threat they will be back should be seen as presaging the fund raisers and PR about the organizations who betrayed the Trans Students.

The Trans students are now political pawns for fundraising and PR.

I know the cost of getting all students in the Rainbow Alphabet protected in school policies among them the Trans Students, so pardon me for railing against those who just gave it away.

The last part of that sentence was empty politeness as I really do not seek pardon.

I seek explanation.

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