Oklahoma’s stance on gendered bathrooms
OKLAHOMA CITY – Attorney General John O’Connor applauds the Oklahoma Legislature and Governor Kevin Stitt for enacting common sense safety and privacy protections for students in Senate Bill 615. Taking effect immediately, SB 615 simply ensures that in Oklahoma, public schools will designate restrooms, locker rooms, and the like for exclusive use based on a student’s objective sex rather than subjective identity, and it creates an avenue for parents to be involved in making certain that schools comply with the law and their children are protected.
“The Legislature has rightly recognized in the past that people have a right to a reasonable expectation of privacy in locker rooms, dressing rooms, and bathrooms,” said Attorney General O’Connor. “Senate Bill 615 is just an application of that basic truth to the public school context. Nothing can be more reasonable than insisting that a child be allowed to use bathroom facilities or change clothes without the threat of intrusion by a person of the opposite sex.”
The Attorney General has been working vigorously on this issue for months now, and his office sent a letter to Oklahoma Representative Anthony Moore on April 27, 2022, encouraging the Legislature to enact such a law expeditiously in the wake of disturbing actions taken and statements made by various school and state officials. Now that the law has passed, the Attorney General stands ready to defend it against any legal challenge that is raised.
“Oklahoma schools are not required by any court decision to ignore biology when designating restrooms,” the Attorney General said. “To be sure, the Biden Administration has been saber-rattling on this issue for quite some time, as did the Obama Administration. But we have already begun pushing back on Biden’s threats of outrageous federal overreach here, and we will continue to do so in defense of Oklahomans and Oklahoma children.”
Attorney General O’Connor also commends the Legislature and Governor for enacting House Bill 4327 in order to protect unborn children in Oklahoma more fully. The Attorney General has called for the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. This would return the issue of abortion to the States, and no State has done more than Oklahoma to protect the rights of the most vulnerable human beings among us.