Democratic Oklahoma state Rep. Mauree Turner, who identifies as “nonbinary,” took offense to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt saying that nonbinary sex does not exist.
Stitt made the statement after a legal settlement prompted the state’s health department to start allowing residents to identify as nonbinary on birth certificates. However, Stitt said that he believes this change was made without “proper approval or oversight,” the Washington Examiner reports.
Stitt said in a statement that “I believe that people are created by God to be male or female. Period. There is no such thing as nonbinary sex and I wholeheartedly condemn the purported OSDH court settlement that was entered into by rogue activists who acted without receiving proper approval or oversight ... I will be taking whatever action necessary to protect Oklahoma values and our way of life.”
Turner believes that Stitt’s views “adamantly oppose” her existence, saying that “[I]f you have to work with people who adamantly oppose your existence, right, to the point to where we can't work together, you can't talk to me, you can't talk to me like I'm a human being, you don't see me, that damages anyone’s working relationship. To be able to have that autonomy and have that part, that real intimate part of you really kind of recognized in a big way is really, really important in more ways than one.”
Elected in 2020, Turner is Oklahoma’s first lawmaker who identifies as nonbinary.
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