Oklahoma
Oklahoma lawmaker whose bill bans Pride flags also penned ban on race topics in classrooms
OKC Pride Alliance hosts parade downtown
The Oklahoma City Pride Alliance hosted their annual parade in downtown OKC on Sunday.
Alonzo Adams, For The Oklahoman
This week, a bill that would ban state agencies from displaying pride flags or using funds to observe Pride Month has drawn support from conservative voters and criticism from LGBTQ+ advocates.
The bill is authored by Rep. Kevin West, R-Oklahoma City, the same lawmaker who also authored the controversial House Bill 1775, the so-called critical race theory ban, that bans the teaching of certain racial and gender topics in Oklahoma classrooms.
Here’s everything we know about West’s bill history and recent projects.
Who is Kevin West?
West was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 2016 to House District 54 in Oklahoma City.
He graduated from Douglass High School and studied construction at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M before opening a cabinet shop in Oklahoma City.
In his biography on the House website, West said he’s committed to making the state a safe place to raise children, run businesses and forge a future.
What is the ‘Patriotism Not Pride Act’?
The “Patriotism Not Pride Act”, or HB 3217, would ban state agencies from displaying pride flags or using funds to observe Pride Month.
The bill seeks to prohibit state agencies from displaying flags that represent sexual orientation or gender identity on state property, and would ban state agencies from using any funds ― federal or private — to develop, administer, engage in, promote or endorse any activity that aims to promote or recognize Pride Month or any event with a similar theme.
When the bill was heard by the State Powers Committee Wednesday, West said he’d seen banners on state agency websites promoting Pride Month, which is why he felt the bill was necessary.
What is House Bill 1775?
In 2021, West authored HB 1775, which bans eight race and gender concepts from public school classrooms and prohibits mandatory diversity training at universities.
The bill faces a lawsuit filed by a group of students, teachers, activists and college professors, with attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union.
The challengers said the law violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution by stifling speech and discriminating against minority and LGBTQ+ students.
Will the ‘Pride Not Patriotism Act’ face a lawsuit?
After HB 3217 passed the State Powers Committee, Cindy Nguyen, policy director of ACLU of Oklahoma, said West should be familiar with the lengths the ACLU of Oklahoma is willing to go to protect against viewpoint-based censorship, referencing the lawsuit against HB 1775.
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Oklahoma is in the top 10 states receiving new residents in the nation in recent years, a new survey suggests.
StorageCafe conducted a recent study utilizing U.S. Census data showing Oklahoma welcomed over 25,000 new residents in 2023, with millennials being the largest-represented generation among those entering the Sooner State.
Here’s what the study had to say about migration into Oklahoma.
Oklahoma among top 10 states to move to
According to StorageCafe, Oklahoma welcomed 25,000 new residents in 2023 in net migration.
New residents in Oklahoma were largely made up of millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996, at 27%.
Though Oklahomans and Texans don’t seem to be eye to eye in the football arena, Texas is “by far the largest source” of new Oklahoma residents.
Among the major reasons for the increase in migrants is likely Oklahoma’s affordability, with 36% of millennials buying a home within their first year in Oklahoma.
In addition, Oklahomans found major success in recruiting former California and Colorado residents to move to the state, rounding out the top 3 states bringing new residents.
What are the states attracting the most residents?
These states are the states with the highest migration numbers:
- Texas (138,000)
- Florida (137,000)
- North Carolina (111,000)
- South Carolina (72,000)
- Georgia (62,000)
- Arizona (57,000)
- Indiana (32,000)
- Colorado (31,000)
- Tennessee (28,000)
- Oklahoma (25,000)
NORMAN — High highs and low lows defined John Mateer’s first season at Oklahoma.
Mateer, who transferred to OU ahead of the 2025 season, led the Sooners to a 10-3 record and their first College Football Playoff appearance since 2019. He threw for 1,215 yards and logged 11 touchdowns in OU’s first four games, helping them win each of them.
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“His best football was as good as there is in college football,” OU coach Brent Venables said.
In the back half of the season, though, Mateer wasn’t as efficient. After returning from a hand injury that kept him out of the Kent State game, Mateer completed only 59.4 percent of his passes for 1,670 yards, eight touchdowns and eight interceptions over the Sooners’ final eight contests.
Venables is well aware of the good and the bad from Mateer’s first season in Norman. And the coach is pleased with Mateer’s focus throughout the first few months of the offseason.
“He’s in the building every day with his coaches, and very focused in that space,” Mateer said. “And I’ll meet with him frequently as well, from a leadership standpoint.”
Mateer’s up-and-down campaign came after his superb season at Washington State in 2024. As the Cougars’ starter that year, he threw for 3,370 yards, 29 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
The SEC, though, is much more challenging than the primarily-Mountain West schedule that Mateer faced at WSU.
Venables is confident that Mateer will be more consistent in his second season with the Sooners, thanks to one year in the conference under his belt and the reps against Oklahoma’s defense throughout its spring and fall camps.
“I try to give him a defensive lens with plays that we’ve made some different cut ups for him,” Venables said. “The more you know about the other side of the ball, like intimately, deeply, like you know it maybe better than your side of the ball you can just elevate your game to another level.”
Though Mateer’s production dipped late in the season, he was far from the only inconsistent player on OU’s offense.
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The Sooners scored more than 30 points in only one of their final eight games. Oklahoma also averaged just 316.3 yards per game during that stretch and rushed for only 3.4 yards per carry.
OU’s front office did plenty to reinforce the unit during the offseason.
The Sooners signed three wide receivers — Trell Harris, Parker Livingstone and Mackenzie Alleyne — from the transfer portal. Oklahoma also added multiple tight ends, offensive linemen and running backs from the portal. The Sooners will also have several true freshmen — like running backs DeZephen Walker and Jonathan Hatton Jr. and wide receiver Jayden Petit — who may contribute immediately.
Venables noted how Mateer has grown as a leader since the start of last season and that he is much more “relational” than he was previously.
Ultimately, the coach believes that Mateer is in a better position to be one of college football’s best quarterbacks in 2026.
“He cares about the freshman walk-on guy as much as the new right tackle, and those are some of the qualities that John has that make him very endearing to everybody in the building,” Venables said. “He’s a passionate and an enthusiastic guy too, but he’s never been an over-the-top fake kind of guy, and you can’t fabricate just being genuine and authentic. And so he’s very relational with the guys.”
Oklahoma will begin its 2026 season against UTEP on Sept. 5.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt has chosen Alan Armstrong, an oil and gas executive, to finish out the remainder of Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s term, three sources told NOTUS.
The two men are expected to meet with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday to iron out the details of the appointment and discuss it further, two of the sources said.
The sources cautioned that the pick could change following that meeting.
In March 2021, Armstrong gave $5,800 to former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who voted to impeach Trump, according to FEC records. Sources said the donations are likely to be a topic of conversation at Mar-a-Lago.
Armstrong, who chairs the board of directors for the energy company Williams, was one of three main names Stitt presented in meetings he had in Washington, D.C., earlier this month. While multiple names were floated, Stitt was focused on three people: his senior advisor Dustin Hilliary, oil baron Harold Hamm and Armstrong.
Stitt is expected to announce the appointment shortly after Mullin is officially confirmed by the Senate as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, as early as Sunday.
Representatives for Armstrong and Stitt did not return a request for comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
In accordance with Oklahoma law, Armstrong will be required to sign a sworn affidavit saying he will not seek election to a full six-year Senate term and instead will only serve out the remainder of Mullin’s current term.
Rep. Kevin Hern has already essentially cleared the field in the race for the Senate seat.
This article has been updated with additional information.
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