Culture & the Family

Oklahoma Democrats fight to let men use women’s bathroom

January 16, 2025

Ray Carter

During the Jan. 7 organizational day of the Oklahoma Legislature, House Democratic lawmakers started the new year arguing that men should be allowed to use the women’s bathroom at the back of the House chamber.

The debate began during discussion of House Resolution 1002, which sets forth the operational rules of the Oklahoma House of Representatives for the next two years.

State Rep. Molly Jenkins, R-Coyle, offered an amendment that stated, “Only a person born as a biological female shall be allowed into any restroom facility which is designated for female members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives.”

The amendment was quickly modified to make clear that janitorial staff of both sexes can still clean the facilities after hours.

Jenkins said the amendment’s purpose is simple.

“In the event that in the future we have a situation that arises where someone who is a transgender would like to come into the women’s bathroom, I believe that many women would feel uncomfortable with that,” Jenkins said.

House Democrats objected and argued the bathroom rule involved almost insurmountable logistical challenges.

“As a woman, how am I to know that the people in the restroom with me are biologically female at birth or not?” asked state Rep. Michelle McCane, D-Tulsa.

“Will they be required to present birth certificates? Will they be required to prove, physically, that they are as you say they are?” asked state Rep. Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa [pictured above].

“I don’t think we need to have people at doors checking to see people’s birth certificates,” Jenkins responded. “That seems a little extreme to me. But it is a time-honored tradition that men use men’s bathrooms and women use women’s bathrooms.”

Provenzano also asked why the same rule was not proposed for the men’s bathroom.

“Because I thought of it as a woman,” Jenkins responded.

She added that the same rule could be adopted for the men’s bathroom.

State Rep. Annie Menz, D-Norman, indicated that she feared being labeled a man.

“If I’m in there and … I have my hair pulled back and I’m wearing pants, as female veterans are wont to do sometimes, and someone thinks that I am male-presenting and they run in and they ask one of the members of your leadership, you know, ‘Hey, I think that this person is not a woman and she’s in the women’s restroom,’ is there going to be like a cubicle set up to do genital checks?” Menz said.

State Rep. Josh West, R-Grove, said he did not believe genital checks would be necessary.

“There’s common sense involved in this, representative,” West said.

State Rep. Andy Fugate, D-Oklahoma City, also objected, noting that violations of the bathroom rule could lead to significant penalties for a legislator.

“This body has the ability to censure a member, to remove their voting privileges, to remove them from committees, if they violate a rule,” Fugate noted.

He also argued that the rule would apply to a unisex bathroom on the sixth floor of the Capital currently used by both men and women.

But West noted that the unisex bathroom referenced was “a single-stall bathroom with a lock on it.”

House Democrats made their comments in favor of allowing men to use women’s bathrooms at a time when a recent report revealed that many men who have identified as transgender women and sought to access women’s spaces may be doing so with ill intent.

A recent review in England and Wales found that almost two-thirds of males in prison who now identify as transgender women have been convicted of sex offenses. That’s far higher than the overall rate in the male population. About 17 percent of men in prison in England and Wales have been convicted of sexual offenses.

Jenkins’ amendment was ultimately adopted on a 71-17 vote with the entirety of HR 1002 adopted in a subsequent vote.