Topics :: Oklahoma

Okla. Gay Man Says Car Explosion was a Hate Crime

By Jason St. Amand | Friday Jul 27, 2012
A 25-year-old man from Oklahoma City says he was the victim of a hate crime after he witnessed a group of individuals blow up his car and write "fag" on its roof. A few days later, his apartment was trashed with the same word written on his wall.

Man Gay Bashed Outside Tulsa Bar

By Kilian Melloy | Tuesday Nov 30, 2010
A gay man attacked by two burly individuals in downtown Tulsa, Okla., says that he and a friend were targeted for violence because they are gay.

’Girls Just Wanna Have... An Education’ :: Okla. Teen Lesbians Say They Are Barred from Finishing School

By Kilian Melloy | Tuesday Nov 16, 2010
Two lesbian teenagers in Del City, OK, say that they have been denied an education by a high school principal who refuses to allow one, a dropout, to return--and allegedly kicked the other one out of school when he found out she was a lesbian.

Oklahoma Town Approves GLBT History Month

By Kilian Melloy | Wednesday Sep 29, 2010
A city in Oklahoma has approved a proclamation that dubs October "Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender History Month." But some locals opposed the measure, citing standard-issue anti-gay tropes such as the "gay lifestyle" and fears that children would be taught about gays in school.

Oklahoma hate crime victim contacts FBI

By Michelle Parsons | Thursday May 6, 2010
Phillip Nelson, who now lives in Dallas with his partner, contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation after he concluded local police had not done enough to investigate the three men who beat him outside his Claremore, Okla., apartment complex in late March.

Measure would allow Okla. to opt-out of federal hate crimes law

By Michelle Parsons | Wednesday Apr 14, 2010
Just days before an Oklahoma lawmaker blocked a measure that would have allowed his state to opt-out of the federal hate crimes law, Phillip Nelson, who was beaten by three men who shouted anti-gay slurs at him outside his Claremore apartment complex last month, said a group of people harassed and threatened him and his friend outside a Tulsa bar.

Gay Okla. college student beaten in apartment complex

By Michelle Parsons | Monday Apr 5, 2010
Three men screamed anti-gay epithets at Oklahoma college student Phillip Nelson as they beat him while taking out the trash in his apartment complex outside Tulsa last month; this attack comes as state lawmakers continue to debate whether Oklahoma should opt-out of federal hate crime statutes.

Arbitrary and Unjust

By Kilian Melloy | Monday Apr 5, 2010
Those silly Oklahoma state senators! They meant to deprive gays of federal protections, but got their bogeymen mixed up and voted to strike protections for racial minorities and religious people instead. Ha ha, it’s all in good fun. right? -- as long as the joke is on the gays, that is.

In Slipup, Anti-Gay Okla. Lawmakers Vote to Strip Race, Religion Protections

By Kilian Melloy | Tuesday Mar 30, 2010
Lawmakers in Oklahoma attempting to strip the state’s gays of federal protections inadvertently voted to approve a law that would strike down hate crimes protections relevant to race and religion.

Oklahoma Senate Votes to Opt Out of U.S. Hate Law

By Kilian Melloy | Friday Mar 12, 2010
The Oklahoma state senate has approved a bill that would allow the state to "opt out" of the first federal law to extend hate crimes protections to LGBTs.