OKLAHOMA CITY — In a closed-door meeting Wednesday, fellow House Republicans designated Speaker Charles McCall to lead their caucus again in 2019.
Details of the vote were not revealed and McCall’s office declined requests for comment following the noon-time vote.
Several Republican House members are known to have challenged McCall, including representatives Chad Caldwell of Enid, Charles Ortega of Altus and Tommy Hardin of Madill. McCall has taken some criticism because of his inability to muster the three-fourths majorities needed to pass revenue bills in the House, and from fiscal hard-liners who oppose such proposals altogether.
Wednesday’s vote is not final. The caucus will meet again following the November election, when more than a dozen seats now held by Republicans are expected to change hands through term-limits, retirement or election to the state Senate.
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Activity on the House floor Wednesday was relatively uneventful, with the greatest controversy surrounding a bill its author said gives school districts the option of incorporating “consent and healthy relationship education” into professional development, and for developing “rape or sexual assault response” procedures.
Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, D-Norman, said his House Bill 2734 was in response to a constituent who told him she’d been raped as a teen while “incapacitated” and that the male involved “said he didn’t know what consent is.”
Rosecrants said local Safe Schools committees would decide whether to participate.
“Help me understand what you mean by ‘healthy relationship,’ ” asked Rep. Todd Russ, R-Cordell. “Is that like a snowflake thing?”
“Snowflake” is sometimes used to denote a pampered young person.
Rosecrants read a definition describing the term as meaning “open and honest ... fundamentals include safe communications, healthy boundaries, speaking up if something is bothering you, respecting each other’s feelings and boundaries, compromising when disagreements arise ... being supportive and encouraging and respecting each other’s privacy.”
Several conservatives interpreted that as distribution of contraceptives to minors and promotion of “LGBTQ and transgenderism.”
“Are we opening the door to a course that may have a politically charged agenda?” asked Rep. Jeff Coody, R-Grandfield, who is himself carrying a controversial bill to remove some restrictions on guns in schools.
“This bill is nothing more than an effort to promote an agenda that’s contrary to Oklahoma values or at least the values that Oklahoma used to endorse,” said Rep. Chuck Strohm, R-Jenks.
Rep. John Bennett, R-Sallisaw, warned the bill would allow “secular humanists” to “indoctrinate children” that transgender and LGBTQ traits are OK.
“It’s not OK,” he said.
Despite such pleas, Rosecrants’ bill passed 54-34, with 12 of the 13 women in the chamber at the time voted for the measure.
Also Wednesday, the House passed 81-6 a bill that would make more difficult for the prosecution of someone claiming a stand-your-ground defense in the use of a firearm.
It also laid over HB 3439, by Rep. Carol Bush, R-Tulsa, which allows local law enforcement to take DNA samples at booking to check against a national unsolved crime data base.
The samples would be used only to identify potential suspects and would not be saved, Bush said.
The bill was requested by the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office.
