Oklahoma leaders hope to push further toward LGBTQ equality in 2020
The Associated Press - January 26, 2020 10:24 am
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Leaders in conservative Oklahoma say they are looking for more legislative progress for LGBTQ rights this year after notable strides in 2019.
The Oklahoman reports that Tulsa and Oklahoma City updated their personnel policies to ban discrimination against city employees based on gender identity or expression. Norman became Oklahoma’s first city to ban discrimination against LGBTQ people in housing, employment, or public accommodations.
Allie Shinn, executive director of LGBTQ rights advocacy group Freedom Oklahoma, said that she hopes 2020 will see the Legislature ban the widely discredited practice of “conversion therapy,” used to try to force people to be heterosexual.