OKLAHOMA CITY — House Bill 1449, titled “Women’s Bill of Rights,” which would define “sex” as the natural person’s biological sex at birth was signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt despite criticism it doesn’t provide new rights for women and harms LGBTQ+ individuals.
New Bill Defines Gender Roles, Sparks Controversy Over Women’s Rights and Autonomy
HB 1449 states a “female” is an individual who naturally has the reproductive system that produces, transports and utilizes eggs for fertilization while a “male” is defined as an individual who transports sperm for fertilization. Mothers must be female and fathers must be male, according to the bill.
The bill codifies Stitt’s August 2023 executive order of similar language. Rep. Toni Hasenbeck (R-Elgin) and Sen. Jessica Garvin (R-Duncan) first authored HB 1449. It will take effect Nov. 1, 2024.
“We have had a problem in recent history with the rights of women being degraded over time,” Hasenbeck said on the house flood a day before the end of the legislative session. “All we are trying to do is add clarity in the law so that the rights that have been afforded to women will be maintained.”
Hasenbeck was pressed on what rights would be codified.
“In my mind, rights equal freedoms,” Rep. Trish Ranson (D-Stillwater) said “The issue that I have with this is this bill does not give me any freedoms. This bill does not say that ‘I as a woman now have bodily autonomy, I can have a say with what happens with my body. I can make my own decisions on my healthcare. It doesn’t say that.”
Debate Intensifies Over HB 1449’s Impact on Women’s Spaces and Federal Funding
House Democrats asked if HB 1449 would create equal pay in the private sector, take the government out of women’s hospital rooms and provide better healthcare.
Hasenbeck clarified the bill does none of those things, but rather protects areas where only biological women belong, including locker rooms, domestic violence shelters and prisons.
Cindy Nguyen, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, said the bill could threaten funding for both domestic violence shelters and prisons in Oklahoma because it would force them to violate non-discrimination guidelines required by grants.
“And many domestic violence shelters are already also under these grants, such as funding for their hotlines, their sexual assault centers or domestic violence shelters,” Nguyen said. “The actual shelters themselves, are funded by a lot of these no-discrimination guidelines. So by passing this type of legislation, it would threaten that type of funding. And it clearly seems like the author has not spoken to many folks about the harm of this bill.”
Hasenbeck said on the floor that she spoke with representatives from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC) while authoring the bill.
However, under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA), the DOC must not house transgender or intersex inmates in dedicated facilities, units, or wings solely based on such identification or status.
“Even though it says it’s the Women’s Bill of Rights, this would actually harm many organizations that provide services to many women, all women,” Nguyen said.
HB 1449 would force trans women who become incarcerated to serve sentences in male prisons, Hasenbeck said. It would also allow women-only shelters to deny trans women entry. Hasenbeck also said it would keep children safe in locker rooms and other facilities.
Opponents call HB 1449 anti-trans
Rep. Mauree Turner (D-OKC) is the first nonbinary state lawmaker in the United States. They said HB 1449 is explicitly anti-trans.
“Two-spirit, transgender and gender non-conforming people have always been here. And we will always be here, right here in Oklahoma,” Turner said in their debate, holding back tears. “And you can attack us in the words and policies you weirdly, poorly create. But that won’t change the fact that your attempts are harmful. And you know they are harmful.”
Turner, who is out of terms to serve said it was an honor to work on behalf of their district but the bills coming out of the legislative body are “horrific.”
“That you could sit here on this House floor and create a piece of legislation that claims to be a women’s bill of rights and as we have seen has not codified any actual rights in the worst state for women to live,” Turner said.
Rep. Mark Tedford (R-Tulsa) debated for the bill and said he received over 70 emails and calls regarding an anatomical male who is entering facilities in Tulsa County parks and exposing women to male genitalia. He said when women complained to authorities, they were told nothing could be done as it would be discrimination.
Tedford argued that identity is not the deciding ground for gender.
“We can’t properly give rights to women until we first define what a woman is,” Tedford said. “Until very recently, we did not have to define gender because there was uniform agreement in this common sense and traditional definition.”
CDC’s Broader Gender Definition Clashes with HB 1449’s Narrow Biological Criteria, Raising Civil Rights Concerns
However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines gender identity as an individual’s sense of self as a man, woman, or transgender, among others.
“We know that this bill is going to subject women, trans and cisgender women — subject them to increased scrutiny on how well they are essentially performing womanhood,” Nguyen said. “So if you are in a domestic violence shelter and somebody accuses you of not being woman enough, or not being a cis woman, how do you check without violating somebody’s civil rights?”
Gender is defined broadly on purpose, Nguyen said. It is so to expand protections for gender-fluid people.
“By this bill, it would define in a very narrow way, by reducing people down to their reproductive organs,” Nguyen said. “This bill also intends to just change state law so it could be used to mandate discrimination against trans people.”
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