The state is responding to a lawsuit by five transgender people from Oklahoma and their families, who sued the state over Senate Bill 613. The law passed this legislative session, which prohibits care for gender-affirming minors.
The state’s response includes testimony from people who have now detransitioned. All three people in the response cite childhood trauma and claim that proper therapy or counseling would have kept them from transitioning.
“I will not allow transgender surgeries to happen to minors in Oklahoma,” Governor Stitt said at a news conference in May.
The bill banning gender-affirming care for minors was the first bill signed into law this session.
but not without push from many legislators.
“It does a disservice to the people of Oklahoma and to the families and individuals who need this care,” Sen. Julia Kirt (D-OKC) said during a committee meeting in February.
“These laws are discrimination against transgender youth in Oklahoma,” said Sen. Kay Floyd (D-OKC).
A group of five Oklahoma families with transgender children are suing the state, calling the law unconstitutional. The five children wear pseudonyms in the dress, to protect their privacy.
The ACLU of Oklahoma, the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the law firm Jenner & Block LLP are also in the suit.
The state’s response to the lawsuit is more than 400 pages long, featuring testimony from three Oklahoma women who say they regret transitioning as teenagers.
Zoe Hawes started taking testosterone as a teenager. She is quoted in the response as saying, “I was on testosterone for almost four years in total. By the age of 16, I was absolutely convinced that I was a man in a woman’s body, and that transitioning from female to male was the only thing that made me would bring peace.”
Hawes said she wanted gender transition surgery but couldn’t afford it.
The answer reads, “I was hospitalized six times in Oklahoma, while on testosterone.”
“In 2018 I attempted suicide and was hospitalized again in Oklahoma.” Hawes said. “Finally, I started doing the inner work I needed to do to start healing. 14. In my 20s I stopped taking testosterone and my body began to regain its feminine characteristics. I no longer take any mental health medication or receive therapy. I think gender dysphoria was brought on by trauma and culture, by people and medical professionals who encouraged me to believe that becoming a man was a choice and that transitioning would bring me peace.”
She is quoted in the state’s response as saying, “I think gender dysphoria was brought on by trauma and culture.”
Laura Smalts legally changed her name to Jake and started taking testosterone at a young age.
Smalts is quoted as saying, “At 25 I decided that I was supposed to have been a man and that I had just been born in the wrong body,” and said, “I was completely convinced that I was a man trapped in a woman’s body “.
Smalts had a double mastectomy, a full hysterectomy, surgeries that she says led to serious medical problems, including heart problems.
Smalts quotes listening to a Christian radio channel, saying, “I had a vision of Jesus coming to my well with an outstretched arm, asking me to leave everything and follow him.”
Smalts began to detransition, saying that “physical transition was never real, it never solved gender dysphoria, and what they really needed was psychological counseling, not hormones and surgery.”
“I fully support laws that prevent children from making the same horrible mistakes that I did. I think SB613 does just that,” Smalts said in response.
Aether Fixon started asking her mother for puberty blockers around the age of 12.
The response reads: “My mother finally consented to the testosterone prescription because the therapist told her I would kill myself if my mother didn’t agree.”
Fixon told the state, “If SB 613 had been in place when I was a teenager in Oklahoma, my mother would not have been forced to consent to medical treatments against her better judgment.”
The ACLU is not commenting at this time, but they plan to file their response on Monday.
