The House and Senate on Sept. 29 passed Senate Bill 3, which appropriated $39.4 million to the University Hospitals Trust for expanding behavioral health care facilities for Oklahoma children.
Bet that sounds good to most people. But here’s what a lot of folks don’t know: The University Hospitals Trust includes OU Health and Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, which houses the Adolescent Medicine Roy G. Biv Program. According to its website, this provides “mental health, nutritional and medical needs of all LGBTQ youth, including those moving toward gender affirmation.” In place of the word affirmation, you can insert the word reassignment – a.k.a. making a physical and biological male into a female and vice versa.
Another representative and I found out about this program back in early summer before the Legislature called it’s second special session to distribute American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. Leadership at that time was trying to send a portion of these funds to OU Health with no strings attached. When we brought forward that this money could be spent on gender reassignment treatments and surgeries for minors, a temporary stop was put on the appropriation. But it came back in our most recent session, stuffed into a bill will multiple other appropriations for the University Hospitals Trust.
Knowing this bill was coming, the other representative and I met with OU Health to find out just what the Roy G. Biv program is and what it offers to children under the age of 18. First, we discovered Roy G. Biv is not a person as would be assumed by the way it is written. It’s an acronym for the colors of the rainbow – the symbol the LGBTQ community has stolen from the Bible. My colleague and I pointed out this was deceptive, and it made us wonder what other ways OU Health might be deceiving Oklahoma taxpayers. We were told by doctors at the center that they did not perform any surgeries below the waist, but they have done several above the waist, and they recommend children to other states when other surgeries are desired. They also offer hormone blockers and other therapies meant to alter the physical bodies of children.
It’s one thing if a child is born with a chromosomal or genetic anomaly. It’s another thing altogether to remove a functioning part of a child’s anatomy and change their hormones in such a way that might have irreversible and lifelong consequences at an age when their brain is not even fully developed. We don’t let children smoke, drink alcohol or get tattoos. Yet we’re willing to let them undergo such drastic procedures to alter their physical bodies?
Several of my Republican colleagues and I want a total ban on these procedures, and we don’t want counselors to be able to even recommend sending these children out of state for such procedures.
We had the ability to extend our call in special session to accomplish a permanent ban, but we couldn’t get enough support. Instead, Senate Bill 3 was drafted with language that I feel is too vague to accomplish a true ban. It’s full of loopholes and unclear language. Once this money is given to OU, it won’t be clawed back if they decide to continue this program. Even if they stop it for now to receive the funding, there’s nothing in this bill to stop them from restarting it and no true penalty if they just continue it. And this bill does nothing to stop other facilities in the state from doing these same procedures.
For this reason, I and a few other of my Republican colleagues voted against this bill.
As always, if I can help you with anything, feel free to call my Capitol office at (405) 557-7413 or email me at rick.west@okhouse.gov.
-END-
Rick West serves District 3 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. His district includes part of LeFlore County.
Get Local News!
