Thread by @CathJSweeney

The Senate is hearing HB 1007. It appropriates hundreds of millions of dollars to university hospitals, but it says they can't use any of it for gender-affirming care. Link to the hearing: oksenate.gov/live-chamber
Link to the bill: oklegislature.gov/BillInfo.aspx?…

Minority Leader Kay Floyd: There was a comment that the majority of Oklahomans don't support gender-affirming care. Where did you get that figure?
Senate Pro Tempore Greg Treat: We haven't done polling, but that is the consensus in who is reaching out to our offices. #okhealth

Floyd: Minors have to have parents' permission to undergo any health care. Is this measure anti-choice?
Treat: We don't allow minors to make life-changing decisions — to get tattoos, buy cigarettes or enter contracts.
Floyd: Are you likening health care to getting a tattoo?

Floyd: We are going to be circumventing parental rights by legislation.
Treat: There are a multitude of example where it is in the best interest of society where we limit decision making until someone is 18.

Dahm: Do you mean the majority opposes GA care for everyone or only minors?
Treat: "I know the majority of our chamber agrees — deals with the minors." We don't support children making life-changing decisions.
Dahm: Does this keep kids from being able to go elsehwere?
Treat: No.

CORRECTION: They're voting on the Senate version, SB 3 webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2021-22…

Dahm: Could we pass legislation ensuring no taxpayer dollars go to gender-affirming care regardless of age?
Treat: I don't think we could use SB 3 for that. We used it because we were appropriating funds for child behavioral health, which makes it germane.

Sen. Julia Kirt: Is gender dysphoria in the DSM?
Treat: "I will eagerly await you educating me on that." I haven't read the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (guide book on all mental conditions).

Kirt: It is. (Gender dysphoria is a condition of mental suffering because a person's body doesn't match their gender.) So it is medically a treatable condition. What will OU do when someone seeks care for this and can't get it?
Treat: Their depression can be treated.

Kirt: This bans medical therapies for gender dysphoria.
Treat: But counseling and mental health treatments are allowed.

Kirt: Are there other medical treatments that might be considered objectionable by this body in the future?
Treat: "I cannot deal with every hypothetical that could be raised in the future."

Sen. Carrie Hicks: How will losing that rotation affect the OU pediatrics residency program?
Treat: You won't lose that part of the rotation.
Hicks: We are taking that educational opportunity from ped residents.
Treat: This expresses the will of Oklahomans.

Hicks: Where in the bill does it limit care to irreversible care?
Treat: Gender change is permanent.
Hicks: The majority of this treatment is puberty blockers, which are reversible. Why make this broad enough to ban them?
Treat: I don't know if that's the majority of patients.

Hicks: If the majority of this care IS reversible, then why is that not reflected in the bill's language?
Treat: I believe it is reflected in the language.

Sen. Mary Boren: Would you agree most people don't have a trans friend who has undergone treatment?
Treat: Yes.
Boren: Then how is the majority of Oklahomans informed enough to have an opinion on this?

Treat: I disagree with the premise of the question. "This is entirely reflective of where Oklahomans want us to be on this issue."
Boren: How is this body specifically educating itself? Cable TV? Youtube?
Treat: I'm talking with people.
Boren: You said you didn't look at the DSM.

Sen. Michael Brooks: We know trans kids that don't get care are more likely to die of suicide. Sen. Treat is an advocate for the dignity of life. What about these kids' and their parents' dignity?
Treat: We do allow counseling and mental health treatment.

Brooks: Is it a good thing or bad thing if we lose access to care that keeps kids alive? Is it appropriate for a presumed majority — and possible vocal minority — to be making this decision?
Treat: There is a state interest in people not making these decisions til 18.

Brooks: How does someone having this care affect anyone who isn't the patient?
Treat: Taxpayer dollars mean we all have a stake in it, and some people find it violates their moral code.

Floyd: Do you agree gender dysphoria is a medical condition?
Treat: I have issue with the amount of attention it has received. My children are 14, 12 and 11. This is a daily confrontation of issues. Is it as prevalent as society currently believes it is?

Treat: "We're not denying health care." We are still recognizing people need help. This bill allows for mental health counseling.

Floyd: Is it rare for parents to make medical decisions for their kids?
Treat: No.
Floyd: Are we going to review all parent-authorized health care if it's taxpayer funded?
Treat: I don't think this body inserts itself often, but some things "rise to a level."

Members are having discussions about potential long-term effects of puberty blockers. I don't know if these claims are true and don't want to share them until I do.

That's the end of questions. We're moving onto debate.

Sen. Mary Boren: I want to say thank you to these doctors. "I'm sorry you're being tormented and targeted by those who abuse their religious authority in Oklahoma."

Boren: This bill stems from an agenda of bigotry. "Today it's curtailing ... modern medicine. Tomorrow it's criminalizing." We have no reason to believe the fight stops here today.

Boren: We have a culture that is so prone to abusing religion. I'll contrast that with redemptive faith. "Redemptive faith always sees our neighbors as (God's) image-bearers and refuses to dehumanize others." Bigots use name calling and force people to assimilate to their beliefs

Kirt: This is a major policy change, and it's being slipped into a critical funding bill for our health care infrastructure. "This undermines the integrity of the Senate." Putting a wedge issue in this bill puts cancer care, children's behavioral health and more at risk. #okleg

Hicks: We came here to authorize American Rescue Plan Act funding. Now we're here discussing policy. Of course we support funding behavioral health services. "So it is deeply troubling that this vote is now wrapped in a policy conversation that is an all-out culture war." #okleg

Hicks: I've spent my life working in suicide prevention spaces. I lost a dear friend in high school to suicide. I want to point anyone listening to the Trevor Project. We know this anti-trans bills drive up suicide in our community.
thetrevorproject.org

The chair reminds everyone that they have to be complimentary to their fellow senators, clearly a reprimand of Hicks here

Sen. Jake Merrick: "I'm opposed to accepting any federal funds." We should send this back instead of adding to debt.

Sen. George Young: In a normal session, when we do policy, we have time through the whole committee process to consider. "I've had a couple of days!" We're supposed to be here only for ARPA funding. "We're trying to sneak something in."

Young: I wad a chaplain at St. Anthony's for 15 years. Any time a child gets care, their parents have to sign off on it. Now we're taking that choice away from these parents.

Sen. Warren Hamilton is saying negative things about trans care. The chair interrupts and says that people in the gallery are not allowed to express support or opposition with "outbursts," and this is their first warning

Hamilton: I don't trust those in charge of finances at OU Children's with this money. "Either they were negligent and they disagree with these procedures or they were complicit." They've demonstrated a lack of stewardship, and we're going to give them $100 million.

Sen. Shane Jett: "The love of money is the root of evil." We don't have to earmark this until 2024, and we don't have to spend it until 2026. The Fed is looking at raising interest rates because of inflation. This would contribute to inflation. "Prudence would say we wait."

Jett: If we hold off on spending this money for a year, two years, construction materials will be cheaper. Supply chains will be stronger. We would get more bang for our buck.

Jett: Every one of us has stories we've heard about how excellent OU Children's is. I couldn't be more disappointed in administrators who established the Roy G. Biv program. (Named for colors of the rainbow.) That is political, not medical.

Jett is falsely likening gender-affirming care to genital mutilation. This has been a common talking point in conservative media. Says OU Children's was going after the money train with GA surgeries.

Jett is now saying the body tries to heal itself, so bodies will have to have multiple surgeries... this is not real.

Jett proposes pulling all OU Children's funding until they shut down all GA care.

Dahm: I've been in favor of banning GA care. I've proposed legislation to do that, and we could have passed it. "But it was not deemed a priority."

Sen. Roger Thompson: Oklahoma is a better state today because of OU Medical Center and its contributions to the medical field.
The funding for these behavioral health centers has nothing to do with gender-affirming care. (OU confirmed that this week.) We need this center.

Thompson: Kids are dying from a lack of access to mental health care. These ARPA funds can fix that.

Treat: Conversations on the floor have made it sound as though medicine is infallible. In the 1930s, eugenics and forced sterilization were the medicine of the day. "They probably stood on this floor and said, 'Trust the medical professionals.'"