Oklahoma Senate Bill SB1742

Oklahoma 2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/2/26
• Refer: 2/3/26

Caption

State government; prohibiting state employees from taking certain action. Effective date. Emergency.

Summary

SB 1742 would add a new section to Oklahoma law governing state employees’ use of “preferred pronouns” in documents and communications made in the course of their official duties. The bill defines “preferred pronouns” and also defines “workplace harassment” to include certain conduct in a workplace, including emotional distress, soliciting sexual activity, or distributing political messaging. Under the bill, no employee of any state agency, entity, or instrumentality could state his or her preferred pronouns on any document or communication created or used as part of state employment. The bill further provides that any state employee who violates that prohibition is deemed to be engaged in workplace harassment. It directs the Department of Labor to create workplace standards addressing preferred pronouns and corrective action policies for employees or officials found to be engaged in such harassment, and requires those standards to be submitted to both legislative chambers for approval before distribution to state agencies. The measure is set to take effect July 1, 2026, but also contains an emergency clause stating it would take effect immediately upon passage and approval.

Impact

SB 1742 would create a new codified provision in Title 74 of the Oklahoma Statutes and would impose a statewide restriction on how state employees may identify themselves in official workplace communications. It would also assign the Department of Labor a new rulemaking-like role, subject to legislative approval, to develop and distribute workplace standards and corrective action policies for state agencies, entities, and instrumentalities. The bill would affect state employees, agency communications, and administrative workplace policies across state government.

Sentiment

There is no recorded committee transcript or vote history in the provided materials, so the bill’s sentiment cannot be measured from debate or roll-call data. Based on the bill text and caption, the measure appears to be framed as a workplace policy and state-government regulation bill, but the absence of discussion or votes means there is no documented public support or opposition in the supplied record.

Contention

The main point of contention inherent in the bill is its restriction on state employees’ use of preferred pronouns in official communications, which may be viewed by supporters as a workplace neutrality rule and by opponents as targeting gender identity expression. Another likely area of dispute is the bill’s broad definition of “workplace harassment,” which treats a pronoun-related violation as harassment and also includes “distributing political messaging” in the definition. The requirement that the Department of Labor’s standards receive approval from both legislative chambers before distribution may also raise separation-of-powers or administrative authority concerns.