In his latest attempt to pander to sanctimonious Oklahoma simpletons like himself, Kevin Stitt eagerly and happily signed SB 4 into law yesterday afternoon.
The latest piece of Evangelical culture war-inspired anti-trans legislation, the bill provides $108.5 million in federal stimulus funds to the OU health system, but only if it stops providing gender reassignment medical treatment – a.k.a. healthcare – in the rare circumstance that a child may need it.
According to The Washington Post, the bill was inspired and heavily influenced by a right-wing Oklahoma podcaster named Mark Ousley. He's the host of something called the Unwokable Podcast, attends OU as a choral student, and occasionally writes right-wing content for the OCPA…
The push to end OU Health’s transgender care was accelerated by two conservative podcasters who last month began demanding action from legislators ontheir programs and social media.
The target of their ire was the Roy G. Biv Program at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, which for the last six years has offered mental health counseling and hormone therapy, including puberty blockers. In a handful of cases, it has also referred patients transitioning from female to male to surgeons for mastectomies.
Mark Ousley appealed to his 20,000 Twitter followers and listeners to his Oklahoma-based “UnWokable Podcast” in mid-September to call on lawmakers and demand OU Health’s federal money be withheld...
Wait a second. This guy was able to affect state government funding because he has a podcast and 20,000 Twitter followers? Uhm, WTF am I doing here?! I have a podcast and I have 60,000 Twitter followers! I really need to use my power and influence more wisely!
That's why today I'm calling for Oklahoma lawmakers – in the name of transparency – to pass a bill that will require any podcaster who wants to have an impact on state legislation to publically release their sex tapes if... and only if... they resulted in an international tabloid clickbait scandal.
Wait... what?
Back in 2016, before Mark moved to Oklahoma and started going by his middle name, he was actually John Ousley, a choir teacher at a Christian private school in the Houston area who was married to a fledgling actress named Leslie Hippensteel.
Here's a picture of the couple:
Even though he married up, I guess John... errr... Mark met a younger engaged woman at church, sang her a song, and started having a little affair with her. How Christian and groomerly of him, huh? Things then apparently got a little extra fun and they started recording their sexual escapades and, well, I'll let The Daily Mail take it from here...
Two couples who met at a Texas church are now involved in complicated sex tape blackmail case.
Actress Leslie Amanda Hippensteel, 31, and her husband John Ousley, 32, met Saul Eisenberg, 28, and his then-fiancée, 24, at a church in Katy, Texas.
Ousley and Eisenberg's fiancée ended up having an affair and made a couple of sex videos which were eventually found by Hippensteel.
Hippensteel allegedly blackmailed Ousley with them and emailed them to Eisenberg, who in turn allegedly forwarded them to his mother and stepfather.
Yep, that's correct! The right-wing Christian podcaster who motivated and pushed Oklahoma lawmakers to pass moralist and judgemental anti-trans legislation cheated on his wife with an engaged woman, filmed their private encounters, was caught and then blackmailed over it! As our pal Gaylon Culver would say – Is This A Great State Or What? Here's more:
Hippensteel was arrested [in 2016] for allegedly blackmailing her ex-husband with the sex videos their divorce by threatening to send them to the Christian high school where he worked if he didn't give her money. Ousley appeared to give Hippensteel $7,812.21 in exchange for her silence. Ousley then emailed the X-rated videos to himself in order to save them, but his wife discovered the footage and confronted him about his infidelity, the court filings stated, according to KPRC. But she then allegedly sent the videos to Eisenberg, who says he received them on February 2, and still allegedly ahead and sent them to Ousley's employer, the Houston Christian High School. According to his LinkedIn page, Ousley had worked at the school as director of choir and worship for three years. Ousley ended up resigning his post at the school over the sex tapes after administrators confronted him about the videos which also ended up on a pornographic website.
To be clear, I don't think that a high school choir teacher having an affair, filming it, being blackmailed by his wife, emailing the videos to himself for private safekeeping, resigning from his job, and then moving to Oklahoma and going by his middle name should prevent him from having an opinion on manufactured wedge issues, starting an "Unwoke" podcast, or using his Twitter following to help influence and pass judgemental and moralistic legislation that affects real people and families, but it sure is fucking hysterical! Also, to be extra clear, I don't know if John... errrr... Mark has ever addressed the scandal on his podcast or Twitter. This is because... A) I have better things to do in life than listen to something called Unwokable, and... B) I blocked him on Twitter last year to keep his stuff from creeping on my timeline. If we want to know if he's ever addressed it, we'll need to ask some of John... errrrr... Mark's loyal Twitter followers like Ryan Walters or Carly Atchison: 
Anyway, now that Mark is a bonafide political influencer in Oklahoma, it will be interesting to see what future legislation Oklahoma lawmakers pass. If Stitt signs more anti-trans legislation – or something called the "Sex Tape Blackmail Reform Act" – I guess we'll know where it came from. Stay with The Lost Ogle. We'll keep you advised.
