The Rainbow Youth Project, a group that operates a national crisis hotline for LGBTQ+ youth, said calls from Oklahoma declined over the last month after the resignation of anti-LGBTQ+ Christian Nationalist Ryan Walters as the state’s superintendent of public instruction.

The hotline received an average of 1,431 monthly calls from Oklahoma between March 2024 and September 2025, Advocate reported. The hotline has received 914 calls since Walters’ resignation on September 25, a 36% reduction. The organization said that 64% of callers identified Walters as a source of distress before his departure as the head of public schools.

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“Following Ryan Walters’s resignation, we have noticed a substantial decrease in crisis calls from Oklahoma,” Lance Preston, the organization’s executive director, said. “The relief expressed by callers is palpable, and we are grateful for the positive impact his departure has had on the mental well-being of our community.”

Walters resigned in late September to lead The Teacher Freedom Alliance, a right-wing anti-union group that bills itself as “an alternative to woke teachers’ unions,” leaving his position one year before the end of his tenure. In the wake of his resignation, teachers have been celebrating, and the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) has been busy reversing Walters’ actions, including dropping his unconstitutional requirement for schools to teach Bible-based social studies lessons.

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Walters’ tenure oversaw a dramatic rise in calls to the Rainbow Youth Project’s hotline. In the weeks following the 2024 death of 16-year-old transgender student Nex Benedict, the crisis line saw a 238% rise in calls from Oklahoma.

The Department of Education under then-President Joe Biden launched an investigation following a complaint by the Human Rights Campaign, which alleged that Benedict endured gender-based discrimination while attending the Owasso School District and that the school district failed to adequately respond to these issues. Benedict reportedly was previously the victim of anti-trans bullying.

The majority – over 80% – of the calls were related to bullying incidents within Oklahoma schools, with a particularly high call volume seen from Owasso. Lance Preston, founder of Rainbow Youth Project USA, said he believes the increase was partly due to greater awareness of the hotline.

“This increase… reveals the need for these support services and for mental health services and for allies for these young people,” Preston told CNN. “We’ve seen a rapid increase in those calls because kids are scared, they are worried, and they are hurting. I would say, up to 15% of those calls are from concerned parents, who are asking what their rights are under Title IX, what can they do to persuade schools to be more proactive against reports of bullying instead of reactive.”

The situation led his organization to create a rapid-response team for Oklahoma.

Activists cited the state’s policies on trans youth as contributing to anti-LGBTQ+ there. This includes bills banning gender-affirming care for trans minors, legally defining gender based on sex assigned at birth, and implementing a 2022 law forcing trans students to use restrooms aligned with their sex assigned at birth.

Walters had a notoriously anti-LGBTQ+ tenure

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) replaced Waters with retired school superintendent Lindel Fields. Soon after, the OSDE reversed one of Walters’ first actions by restoring the OSDE’s Hall of Fame, which honors the state’s past award recipients for Teacher of the Year. The OSDE also quickly revamped its website, removing numerous links that promoted Christian Nationalist misinformation, including Walters’ unconstitutional order for schools to display The Ten Commandments.

Additionally, State Attorney General Gentner Drummond has ordered the Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector’s Office to investigate the Education Department’s finances over the entirety of Walters’ tenure in charge. Drummond said, “[Walters had a] well-established history of mishandling tax dollars.”

During his tenure, Walters withheld $150 million in public school funds to ostensibly make security enhancements against school shootings, in defiance of legislation directing the funds to poorer rural schools. Walters hid information about his office’s travel budget and refused to spend money that he was legally obligated to spend on asthma inhalers for students, The Friendly Atheist added.

Walters sought to ban LGBTQ+ books but teach the Bible in public school history classes, and pushed the transphobic lie about schools providing litterboxes to students who identify as cats. He also referred to teachers’ unions as “terrorist organizations” and illegally tried to make rules banning LGBTQ+ books and transgender bathroom access in schools.

He has appeared at events hosted by Moms for Liberty, a right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ “parents’ rights” group that has been called an extremist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. He also appointed Chaya Raichik, an anti-LGBTQ+ activist who goes by Libs of TikTok online, as a Library Media Advisor for the state (even though she has no educational experience, doesn’t reside in Oklahoma, and has made posts that have led to bomb threats against students).

He also unveiled an ideological purity test to seek and remove “woke” teachers. (The test was criticized as “performative bulls**t” and as an advertisement “masquerading as an assessment.”)

The day before his resignation, he pledged to force all schools statewide to host student groups for Turning Point USA, the young conservatives group started by recently murdered anti-LGBTQ+ MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk.

Oklahoma ranks among the worst states for education and is facing a teacher shortage.

Editor’s note: This article mentions suicide. If you need to talk to someone now, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860. It’s staffed by trans people, for trans people. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for LGBTQ youth at 1-866-488-7386. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

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