Oklahoma Governor Issues Executive Order Defining Biological Sex

Authored by Michael Clements via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt turned the primary U.S. governor to difficulty an govt order legally defining what constitutes a organic female and male intercourse in a transfer to protect ladies’s rights on Aug. 1.

“I am taking decisive executive action to ensure the true definition of the word ‘woman,’ meaning a biological woman, is what guides the state as we reaffirm our commitment to ensuring the safety, dignity, and sanctity of women across Oklahoma,” a press launch from Mr. Stitt’s workplace learn.

“As long as I am governor, we will continue to protect women and ensure women-only spaces are reserved solely for biological women.”

Representatives of LGBT assist teams in Oklahoma decried the transfer saying it will hurt ladies’s rights as a substitute of defending them.

“We don’t feel that this legislation serves the totality of all Oklahomans,” Dorothy Ballard, govt director of Oklahomans for Equality, informed The Epoch Times.

Mr. Stitt’s order incorporates language from two payments at present stalled within the legislature.

SB 408, sponsored by State Sen. Jessica Garvin, has handed the Senate and is ready to be despatched to the Oklahoma House of Representatives. HB 1449, sponsored by State Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, has cleared the House.

Neither made it to the total legislature earlier than the top of the 2023 session.

They will probably be thought-about through the 2024 legislative session, Ms. Garvin informed The Epoch Times. She stated the Senate invoice has bipartisan assist, so she is optimistic it is going to be signed into legislation.

“The [Senate] bill was drafted originally by bipartisan groups working with the Independent Women’s Forum,” Ms. Garvin stated.

Mr. Stitt’s workplace didn’t reply an e-mail requesting remark.

Gov. Stitt’s order enacts language straight from the payments. The order defines a feminine as “a natural person . . . whose biological reproductive system is designed to produce ova.”

A male is outlined as “a natural person . . . whose biological reproductive system is designed to fertilize the ova of a female.”

The order additionally defines mom, father, man, boy, girl, lady, intercourse, and pure particular person. The govt order requires all state companies, together with public colleges, to make use of the listed definitions when figuring out a person’s intercourse.

It additionally requires them to offer “governmental services in single-sex environments where biology, privacy, and personal dignity are implicated.”

“. . . prisons and other correctional facilities are directed to provide dedicated facilities for men and women respectively. Likewise, schools are directed to provide dedicated restrooms and locker room facilities for boys and girls, respectively,” the manager order reads.

Order Is Not Permanent

The govt order is in impact solely throughout Mr. Stitt’s time in workplace. The solely means for the order to be everlasting is to move the wording as payments by means of the legislature.

Ms. Garvin stated the payments had failed to succeed in the governor’s desk in time as a result of the legislature was coping with schooling reform and different urgent issues.

“There’s still a need to do something legislatively. We just ran out of time. We are ready to push forward,” Ms. Garvin stated.

The payments will probably reemerge when the following legislative session begins on Feb. 5, 2024.

According to Ms. Garvin, the laws will restore rights which might be being stripped from organic ladies.

“Biological women are being told to sit down, shut up, scoot over, put a smile on our face and just deal with it,” she stated.

Riley Gaines, a 12-time All-American swimmer for the University of Kentucky turned ladies’s rights activist, was available for the signing. She was quoted in Mr. Stitt’s press launch lauding the order.

“Establishing common language by way of the Women’s Bill of Rights is a way of saying enough is enough: Oklahoman women deserve equal opportunity,” Ms. Gaines stated.

Ms. Gaines took up the trigger after being compelled to compete towards transgender-identifying swimmer Lia Thomas. Lia Thomas swam for the University of Pennsylvania males’s workforce as Will Thomas for 3 years earlier than turning into the primary overtly transgender-identifying swimmer to win an NCAA ladies’s swimming title in 2022.

At the 2022 NCAA Women’s Swimming Championship, Ms. Gaines and Mr. Thomas reportedly tied for fifth place.

“Biological differences must be respected in the law to ensure female-only spaces have a future. It is sad that such basic truths must be spelled out to ensure equal protection,” Ms. Gaines is quoted within the press launch.

Women’s rights teams should not against trans-identifying athletes competing in their very own class or males’s races.

However, not everybody sees the manager order as a step ahead.

Nicole McAfee is the manager director of Freedom Oklahoma. A press release on the Freedom Oklahoma web site attributed to Ms. McAfee denounced the order as a coverage that may “uphold sex-based discrimination in Oklahoma.”

“It is a thinly-veiled attack on codifying discrimination against transgender women,” she stated of the inhabitants that has adopted that id. “We know that this executive order, like the legislation … is not rooted in what is best for women or even clarity within the law, rather it is a blatant celebration of transmisogyny from the Governor’s office,” the assertion reads.

She didn’t return a name looking for remark.

In the web assertion, Ms. McAfee vows to face up for LGBT individuals.

“While we won’t pretend to be surprised that the governor is engaging in yet another blatant attack on our community, we will continue to act with urgency towards the future where all 2SLGBTW+ people have the safety to thrive,” Ms. McAfee wrote.

Ms. Ballard agreed. She stated the laws and govt order are primarily based on “outdated” concepts about what ladies are. She stated the proposed legislation pigeonholes ladies into outdated classes that disregard those that determine as transgender ladies.

“I hope that moving forward, our governor and legislature would do better research into the science and impact of such laws on women,” she stated.

Ms. Garvin denied that the payments had been meant to focus on anybody. She reiterated that the aim of the laws is to guard the rights of organic ladies and ladies.

“This policy was written by a bipartisan group of people who believe in protecting women and women’s rights,” she stated. “I’m not going to go after particular groups of women for political purposes.”

Somerlyn Cothran is govt vice chairman of the Independent Women’s Forum and the Independent Women’s Voice. Her group pushed for the laws and the manager order when the payments stalled. She launched a press release praising the order as important to guard and protect the rights of girls and ladies in Oklahoma.

“In Oklahoma, we protect women. Today, the definition of what a woman is is solidified for women-owned businesses like mine and for women entrepreneurs throughout the state. Without the governor’s order today, that distinction would soon cease to mean anything,” her assertion reads.