Fighting trans bans

Transgender rights activists occupied the Oklahoma state Capitol’s rotunda Monday to protest a push by Republicans to limit socalled gender-affirming care in the state.

About 150 people, many holding signs and banners (inset), chanted “Trans lives matter” before a legislative session in which GOP lawmakers had prefiled bills aimed at curtailing treatments such as hormone-replacement therapy.

One of the proposals would ban health-care professionals from referring anyone under 26 for gender-affirming care, including nonsurgical interventions. A second aims to prevent anyone under 18 from undergoing a sex-change operation.

The bills are part of a slew of recent gender-related proposals in the state, including one signed into law last year by Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt that banned trans women from competing in women’s school sports.