Oklahoma House Censures Nonbinary Rep. Mauree Turner

The Oklahoma House of Representatives has censured Rep. Mauree Turner, saying the nonbinary lawmaker impeded law enforcement when a protester took shelter in their office last week.

Turner, the first out nonbinary person elected to any state legislature, was also stripped of their committee assignments in the Tuesday vote, the Tulsa World reports. The assignments will be restored if Turner issues a written apology to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and the House speaker, something the legislator is not willing to do.

“I think an apology for loving the people in Oklahoma is something that I cannot do,” Turner said in a news conference, according to the World.

Turner is a Democrat, and the House has a Republican majority. The vote to censure Turner came along party lines.

LGBTQ+ people and allies demonstrated at the capitol last week in protest of a pending bill that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth. One protester “was arrested at the Capitol after throwing water on a Republican representative and getting into a scuffle with an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper,” the World reports. A second demonstrator who had tangled with the trooper went to Turner’s office and hid there. That person was later charged with assault and battery on a police officer.

House leaders said Turner refused to bring the protester out, and Republican Rep. Anthony Moore said that violated state law. But Turner “characterized the incident as no different than when any other constituent comes seeking an advocate,” according to the World.

“What happened last week in my office was the same thing that happens all the time,” Turner said. “People do not feel represented or protected by the people within this body. They come to find refuge in my office. They come to decompress from some of the most stressful times.”

House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson, a fellow Democrat, said in the news conference that Moore’s statements were “not based in facts.” During debate on the censure, other Democrats joined in defending Turner. Republicans said Turner was harboring a fugitive, but Democratic Rep. Jason Lowe said the protester had not yet been charged with a crime, and one who hasn’t been charged isn’t a fugitive. Another Democrat, Rep. Monroe Nichols, said the punishment of Turner was harsher than that given to legislators who had been indicted for crimes or charged with driving under the influence.

At the news conference, Turner, who is also Oklahoma’s first Muslim lawmaker, said they are being punished for their identity and for seeking to hold other legislators accountable. “I’m representing a culmination of things that you deeply hate,” Turner said, with “you” meaning Republican politicians.

GLAAD and Freedom Oklahoma both issued statements denouncing the action taken against Turner. “Lawmakers in Oklahoma and across the country continue to double and triple down on their discriminatory and dangerous rhetoric and behavior against their state’s citizens,” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis. “Transgender people are under attack by extremists who are baselessly trying to limit their private, best practice healthcare. Every Oklahoman and every American should be outraged that lawmakers are working overtime to target people, including their own colleague. Lawmakers chose to censure Rep. Turner and threaten to further silence them. This is shameful oppression in a place where democracy, dialogue and decency should be paramount and where every citizen and lawmaker should feel safe and heard.”

Freedom Oklahoma Executive Director Nicole McAfee said, “We don’t have words to convey our anger at what those in power in the Oklahoma House did today to Representative Turner and our entire 2STGNC+ community. Their policy, the increased hostility and number of troopers present, members escorted out of meetings by sergeants at arms so they won’t have to talk to trans constituents, are all actions which have made it perfectly clear that they do not welcome us in the building. We stand in solidarity with Representative Turner who risks their life, their safety, and their peace of mind each day they enter their building to show up for us and with us. Today’s censure was reprehensible and we unequivocally condemn it and the untrue telling of events that accompanied it.”