‘It’s utterly ridiculous:’ trans Tulsa students react to Oklahoma’s school bathroom ban

• Robby Korth
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Robby Korth covers education for StateImpact Oklahoma. He grew up in Ardmore, Oklahoma and Fayetteville, Arkansas and is a graduate of the University of Nebraska. Before working at StateImpact, he covered higher education for The Roanoke Times newspaper in Virginia.
• Kateleigh Mills
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Kateleigh Mills returned to KOSU in December 2019 as Special Projects Reporter, following a year-long stint at KWBU in Waco, Texas. Previously, Mills was a news assistant and All Things Considered host for KOSU from March to December 2018. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Central Oklahoma in December 2017. While studying journalism and professional media, she worked with the UCO’s journalism staff to reinvent the campus newspaper for a more multimedia purpose – joining with the campus radio and television stations for news updates and hosting public forums with campus groups. The Edmond-raised reporter was editor-in- chief of her college newspaper when it won the Society of Professional Journalism award for Best Newspaper in Category B. Mills also received the Oklahoma Press Association Award for ‘Outstanding Promise in Journalism’ at the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame event in 2017. She is also the Oklahoma Collegiate Media Association's recipient for 'College Newspaper Journalist of the Year' in 2017.

A bill to bar transgender students from using the bathroom corresponding with their identity was signed by Governor Kevin Stitt Wednesday.

StateImpact’s Robby Korth and KOSU’s Kateleigh Mills went to Tulsa to talk to a trio of transgender high schoolers on identity and how political conversations about bills like Senate Bill 615 would affect them.

Alex, Jaz and Reilly are all high schoolers. StateImpact is only using their first names to protect their identities. They spoke to StateImpact and KOSU in a roughly 45-minute conversation on the day Oklahoma lawmakers overwhelmingly passed SB 615, the measure that mandates students use the restroom found on their birth certificate.

The students say they feel erased from the discourse around bathroom bans and other anti-trans legislation. The students say it seems lawmakers are focused on “protecting” their cisgender peers who simply don’t need protection from them.

StateImpact’s Robby Korth and KOSU’s Kateleigh Mills produced this story in partnership with Focus: Black Oklahoma. This story is part of the America Amplified initiative using community engagement to inform and strengthen local, regional and national journalism. America Amplified is a public media initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.