OKLAHOMA CITY — Lawmakers in Oklahoma have proposed more than two dozen bills for the legislative session starting Monday targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, one of the largest blocks of anti-LGBT bills of any state, activists said.
Republican lawmakers who dominate the Legislature say the measures protect religious liberties being eroded by the legalization of same-sex marriage, while LGBT activists say the proposals are intended to promote discrimination.
Among the 26 proposed bills, which come as the state battles a massive budget shortfall due to a drop in revenue from its crucial oil industry, is a measure that allows businesses to cite religious grounds in refusing services to gays and lesbians.
When Arkansas and Indiana came near to enacting similar measures last year, lawmakers backed down when they faced boycotts and criticism.
The Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights group that monitors legislation, said the anti-LGBT measures proposed in Oklahoma are the most for a legislative session in the state and the most proposed by any state this year.
“These vile attacks are shameful, far-reaching, and would no doubt be incredibly destructive to this great state — resulting in multiple, expensive legal challenges and a greatly damaged reputation,” the Human Rights Campaign’s legal director Sarah Warbelow said.
Republican Rep. Sally Kern, who authored several of the bills and made headlines in 2008 when she said homosexuals pose a greater threat to the country than terrorism, said activist groups were misleading the public about the scope of the proposed legislation.
“The LGBT community is targeting Oklahoma because we are a conservative, church-going state and a great many of our legislators tend to believe in traditional values,” she said.
One of her bills would require school officials to give 24-hour notice to parents if they refer a student to an outside organization for sexuality issues, such as whether they are gay.
“This is about parental rights and their authority over their minor child,” she said.
Among the other bills proposed by lawmakers is one to cut school districts’ state aid if they accommodate a transgender student and another that restricts the use of public bathrooms by transgender people.