Bathroom battle comes to Oklahoma

by Rob Howard
Associate Editor

Oklahoma State Sen. Joseph Silk (R-Broken Bow) has proposed a state law that is a mean spirited attack on transgender Oklahomans. The bill, SB 1014, says, “It shall be unlawful for a person to use a gender-specific restroom when that person's biological gender is contrary to that of the gender-specific restroom.”

Sen. Silk, who took office in 2015, nevertheless has a long record of anti-gay bills and rhetoric. In 2015, he filed SB 440, which opened the path to anti-LGBT discrimination. The bill provided “no individual or religious entity shall be required by any governmental entity to do any of the following, if it would be contrary to the sincerely held religious beliefs of the individual or religious entity regarding sex, gender or sexual orientation:

“1. Provide any services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods or privileges…”

In other words, anybody, for any reason, could discriminate against LGBT persons.

SB 440 catapulted Silk into the national limelight, and stirred national outrage. In a New York Times interview, referring to the LGBT community, he stated, “They [LGBT persons] don’t have a right to be served in every single store. People need to have the ability to refuse service if it violates their religious convictions.”

Perhaps realizing that his words might be mistaken for racism, instead of homophobia, he added, “The L.G.B.T. movement is the main thing, the primary thing that’s going to be challenging religious liberties and the freedom to live out religious convictions. And I say that sensitively, because I have homosexual friends.”

Really?

His latest effort, SB 1014, is similar to proposals that are popping up across the country, for example in Virginia. There, critics say a similar bill would lead to the inspection of school student genitalia to make sure they are using the right restroom. The proposals follow closely in the heels of the defeat of an LGBT protection ordinance in Houston, TX, that focused on transgender bathroom usage. 

Sen. Silk’s proposal carries no penalty, although through amendments and rewriting, penalties could be added in the political process.

The Tulsa World reported, “Toby Jenkins, executive director for Oklahomans for Equality in Tulsa, said the bill is aimed at transgender individuals.

“He called the measure mean-spirited and a violation of personal privacy.

“’Sen. Silk is making a mountain out of a molehill in trying to shun and discriminate against citizens and our families,’ Jenkins said.”

Tulsa’s KJRH quoted Tulsa attorney and transgender woman Alyssa Bryant saying, “I can't say that I'm surprised; there were similar bills proposed nationwide in other states last year.”

According to an article on the ACLU of Oklahoma website, “Brady Henderson, legal director for ACLU Oklahoma, said [the] measure would be unenforceable without serious violations of personal privacy.

“’I don’t think Oklahomans want to face the possibility of law enforcement officials being authorized to examine their genitals when they go to the restroom,’ Henderson said.”

Enid News and Eagle Senior Writer Jeff Mullin, in an opinion piece, said, “The Legislature convenes Feb. 1 facing a budget shortfall of more than $900 million. State agencies have already been told to cut their budgets for the current fiscal year by 3 percent, and there’s no telling what next year’s budget will look like.

“It is comforting to know Sen. Silk is so concerned about the state’s financial crisis that he is trying to ensure that, if the state continues to go down the toilet, it will at least go down the proper one.”

Sen. Silk doesn’t take opposition to his positions lightly. In 2015, he accused Freedom Oklahoma Executive Director Troy Stevenson of orchestrating “death threats” against his children.

A right-wing blog wrote at the time, “Silk strongly suspects that Stevenson was responsible for leaking the cabin business information shortly after they met in order to encourage activists to send harassing messages. Silk said he is ‘very certain’ it was Stevenson because ‘he has family ties to that community in our same industry [and] that is the only way people could know that.’”

At the time, his Oklahoma State legislature online bio named his business, which deals with vacation cabin rentals in the Broken Bow area in the Southeastern part of Oklahoma.

Sen. Silk is the youngest member of the Oklahoma Senate. His website, although short on details, is littered with misspellings. For example, he expresses faith in a Soverign God [sic]. This state senator clearly is obsessed with the LGBT community, and bears careful watching.

The Gayly – February 3, 2016 @ 5:30 p.m.