Oklahoma lawmakers need to 'reconnect' with those they're serving, says Nicole McAfee

The 2024 Oklahoma legislative session saw more than 50 anti-LGBTQ+ bills , and one Oklahoma City-based activist was on the frontlines fighting against them all.

Nicole McAfee is the executive director of Freedom Oklahoma , the state's only LGBTQ+ advocacy group. The organization was founded in 2012 amid marriage equality fights and legislative pushes to ban marriage access for queer Oklahomans. Since then, it's grown into a mouthpiece for LGBTQ+ Oklahomans at the Capitol and informs the state's queer population of policies that affect them.

Here's how McAfee perceives the political atmosphere around LGBTQ+ Oklahomans, the chances of the state Legislature shifting its attitude toward the community and the pressure of being Oklahoma's only LGBTQ+ advocacy group.

Q: Describe the pressure of being Oklahoma's only LGBTQ+ advocacy organization amid recent legislative action against the community.

A: It can feel really heavy. Something folks don't always recognize, too, is that we are a team of three people. ... It's a lot to have to figure out how we plug in and build community across the state, especially in areas where folks have the least access to that. Since I started at the organization, one of my efforts has really been, 'How do we dig into those places outside of metro areas?'

Q: How do you keep your head above the water as state legislators constantly aim at Oklahoma’s queer community?

A: We've tried to focus on building community joy and intentional community spaces where we can. We started doing ' Love Letters to Trans Oklahomans ' as a project every March. Collecting and sharing those is something that really helps support and sustain us as a team. We started turning those into zines, too, that we share during Trans Day of Remembrance in November, which is a nice way to revisit some of that care and joy at a time that's often heavy. We created 'The People's Hearing ' as opposed to a traditional advocacy day at the Capitol where we take up space and host an open mic for queer and trans folks to tell our stories on our terms in that building. This year, we did ' Give Trans People Our Flowers While They're Still Here ' events around Trans Day of Visibility. Trying to find those opportunities to bring people together with some intentional joy and empowerment that doesn't always center (on) the harm we face is really how we get through it.

Q: In your opinion, why are certain conservative legislators aiming at the LGBTQ+ community?

A: I think there are a few folks who truly believe in the harm that they're pushing at the Legislature, but I think there are so many more who are just willing to go along with it because they think it is the most politically viable pathway, or because it is not an issue they're willing to fight on and risk their own safety of popularity. When I think about the narratives we're hearing, I spent a lot of time trying to read queer trans history, and also movement and activism history. So many of these narratives are things we've heard before.

When there was racial integration happening, a lot of the tactics meant to make trans students feel isolated at schools are also tactics that were pushed on a much more intense scale around (Native American) boarding school projects. To some extent, these are tactics and rhetoric just applied in a new way and a new target that folks have been fighting for generations.

It's still hard sometimes to figure out why Oklahoma is a place where it seems to be almost uniquely bad, knowing that there are queer and trans people all over the state. It's wondering how much of it is just the way that our policymakers have really insulated themselves from actually having to engage with community. A lot of these folks are never on a competitive ballot. They don't really have to talk to voters."

Q: How do you perceive Oklahoma's LGBTQ+ community's resilience, or lack thereof, amid these legislative attacks?

A: Seeing the community really come together and organize against all the harm being pushed by the Legislature has always been something that is really beautiful and joyful. I think of the State of the State address the year before last, when local trans organizers decided that they were going to show up and take up space. It was just incredible to see trans mutual aid happening in real time and see so many trans people in the building all at once from all over the state and be reminded of the fact that we're here and we exist everywhere.

The Williams Institute's latest estimate on the numbers of queer and trans adults in Oklahoma as a population if we all lived in one place, we would be larger than Norman. Sometimes, I have to remind myself that we're here and we deserve representation. We often don't get it, but folks are continually figuring out ways to create that community.

At the same time, it's been especially hard to know that the people who have been most harmed by the policies we've seen out of the Legislature and the rhetoric that accompanies them are trans youth and that so many of these policies are meant to take away their community and take away spaces where they feel safe to have conversations about gender and sexuality with trusted adults.

Q: Do you believe Oklahoma will be able to turn around from this hyper-conservative environment that’s hostile toward its LGBTQ+ community?

A: I think it's possible, especially in a state with term limits, where there is, at some point, a forced turnover in the Legislature. As people term out, there is room for new voices and new thought processes. Knowing how much of this anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is model legislation we're seeing from hate groups move across the country, (it's clear) that a lot of this is not rooted in original ideas in Oklahoma.

There's always room to try to reconnect legislators with the people that they're serving. It's always my hope that we see a Legislature again that is willing to engage public testimony as part of the process because I think one of the biggest steps to shifting from a Legislature that is serving their own political interests to one that is serving the people that they're supposed to represent is that space for them to actually hear from those people that they're targeting.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma lawmakers need to 'reconnect' with those they're serving, says Nicole McAfee