Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Tuesday signed into law a bill banning the option to indicate nonbinary as the gender on state birth certificates.
This now makes Oklahoma the first U.S. state to explicitly ban the option via legislation, the Epoch Times reports.
The measure “requires the biological sex designation on a birth certificate to be either male or female and prohibits a nonbinary or any symbol representing a nonbinary designation.”
“The measure declares an emergency,” it adds.
The law also prevents people from changing the gender on their birth certificates.
In a statement after the bill passed the House, Republican state Rep. Sheila Dills, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, said in a statement: “People are free to believe whatever they want about their identity, but science has determined people are either biologically male or female at birth.”
“We want clarity and truth on official state documents,” she added. “Information should be based on established medical fact and not an ever-changing social dialogue.”
