February 2025 Update

ID: The text reads: “february monthly update. freedomoklahoma.org/news,” centered. Our logo on the bottom right on a grey background with a colorful orb in the middle, a futuristic looking disco ball to the right of the words, dots and stars throughout the image.

Session is Here again, and so are we.

As we enter February 2025 and mark the start of our celebration of 10 years of freedom dreaming at Freedom Oklahoma, it’s my honor to connect with you in this space as the newest member of the Freedom Oklahoma team, where I get to pick up some of the work of connecting and updating and collaborating with you through the fights in front of us.

January was…a lot? The longest month on record? An absolute deluge of bad news? All of the above? And we made it through. We know that we have to hold space for keeping ourselves informed and not leaning into despair, as well as sustaining ourselves through what is not a short fight to keep us safe as we build the future where we all have the safety to thrive. As our Freedom Oklahoma team explores what that looks like and how we do that, as community members, as an organization, as a community, we keep coming back to the idea of connection and support, particularly around mutual aid and the shift in conversation from self care to community care. So I’ll ask you: When someone says “mutual aid” or "community care” what comes to mind for you? Can you name some of the ways you’ve received mutual aid?

I used to look at community care and mutual aid as only donating to or sharing a gofundme, buying the trinkets for the fundraiser, lobbying at the capitol - and those are all really great ways to show up for one another. But I have to remind myself and extend that reminder to all of you, that mutual aid has so many different looks and feels, and in the words of Lamya H., “haven’t I been loved when I couldn't see it?” Maybe it’s someone dropping off soup or cough drops or picking up a prescription when you’re sick. It can be giving someone a ride to the doctor or the library, helping someone navigate phone calls to schedule appointments, setting up a zoom as a first step for connection when someone has been isolating themselves, taking a walk together or sitting alongside one another in a park. It’s body doubling through a task or helping someone clean up a space through a depressive episode. It’s wearing a mask in a public space. Money is not the only resource we need to survive, and it’s not the only one we have to offer. Community, navigation support, transportation, food, joy…there’s so much we need and so much we can offer into our collective survival in and beyond this moment.

I have to remember I’m made of intersections, together they make me whole. The same is for our communities. The intersection of your community garden, local tenants union, mask bloc, food not bombs collective, local grocery store, workers union, and harm reduction groups.

As we head into the legislative session we know that we have some hard fights in front of us from policy criminalizing our community members without stable housing, further attempts to enact gender policing and banning drag, policies that are clearly unconstitutional with chilling effects meant to keep vulnerable community from accessing critical resources, efforts to tear us apart and overwhelm us. And, there are policies we can fight for. Like a chance to end one of the ways we criminalize people living with HIV and offer a pathway to repair for folks previously criminalized because of their HIV status, an effort to expand access to drivers licenses for folks who are undocumented, a chance to diversify accountability for our State Board of Education. As we brace for this look to the words of our Executive Director, Nicole McAfee (They / She), for more information on how we center 2STGNC+ community in this session and beyond. And keep updated with the bills we’re watching from multiple intersections with our legislative tracker.

As we tune into legislative work, as we figure out how we keep each other safe through the barrage of executive orders, we want to dig into the actionable ways we disrupt harm as mutual aid work, expanding our definition of mutual aid and community care in new and evolving ways. Maybe that looks like organizing among parents at your kid’s school so that NO ONE submits citizenship documents if mandated by the State Board of Education or Oklahoma Legislature. Maybe it’s having conversations about making workplace bathrooms gender neutral. Maybe it’s organizing a standing lunch or coffee where folks can come share in nourishing their bodies and spirits. Maybe it’s determining how to disrupt over-compliance for Executive Orders and policy proposals. Maybe it’s helping sponsor a space for community joy at our February 22 Freedom Futures gala.

Whatever it is, there’s a place for you in this work, to ensure that ten years from now, some of the radical futures we’ve dreamed of are more real than ever before. We told you that in 2025 we’ve got futures to dream and liberation to win. Fight alongside us to help us build the future where we’ve got the safety, community, and resources to thrive, everywhere we call home.

With hope, vision, and solidarity,

Nicole McAfee (they/she) - Executive Director

Mauree Turner (they/them) - Director of Digital Organizing & Communications