It’s why he joined as a co-author on a pair of bills — House Bills 1468 and 1470 — sought by Tulsa resident Virginia Lewis, herself a survivor of child sexual abuse. It allows victims to come forward with criminal and civil charges as late as age 45.

“I found out the individual who did it to me works at a church in Tulsa,” McDugle said last week. “These bills do me no good. But I am contacting legal counsel to at least see if the church can be notified. They need to know, and we’ll go from there.”

The no-talk culture, shame and the added benefit of time are what predators depend on.

Advocates for these bills believe the measure would help fight that. It would give children a chance to process what happened and do something about it as adults.

‘Good bills’: McDugle, R-Broken Arrow, said the timing was right to talk about what happened.

He was between 13 and 15 when a youth pastor at a large congregation invited him to his house. It was common for the man to have young people to his home.

On this occasion, McDugle was surprised to be the only kid when he arrived, and the pastor acted inappropriately, he said, describing it as: “He wanted to watch me and try to touch me,”

He put the incident in his past and went on with his life — joining the Marines, starting a business, getting married, having children and getting into politics.

“I never really had a reason to talk about it before,” McDugle said. “It was a one-night, one-time experience. I thought, ‘It happened and I’ll just get it behind me and go on.’ ”

But it never really left. The memory lingered. Sexual abuse, no matter the severity, never goes away.

Then, he had a chance meeting with Lewis in the hallways of the Capitol as she was talking about the bills, introduced by Rep. Carol Bush, R-Tulsa.

When McDugle learned of the proposed legislation, he thought of that long-ago encounter and agreed to be a co-author. A month later he told Lewis why.

“A lot of times you look at a bill and it’s just words on paper, but it’s different when you tell a personal experience,” he said.

McDugle urged lawmakers to support the legislation, often invoking Lewis’ testimony about the years-long molestation she endured by her father.

“I asked each member in private to imagine themselves a child in a room alone and each night your father comes in to touch you. We are the ones standing up for that kid,” he said. “They have to deal with that trauma their entire lives.

“Once (lawmakers) can put themselves in that situation, they know how important this is. They know it might be age 45 before someone might be able to talk about it. It takes so long to process.”

The bills passed the House last week by a unanimous vote. They now proceed to the Senate.

“These are good bills,” McDugle said. “The left and the right agree.”

Necessary step: It was a year ago Lewis made her story public, which was an explosive revelation in the Tulsa legal community. It started with her testimony before a legislative committee.

Her father, George Michael Lewis, was a well-respected attorney, senior partner at a distinguished law firm, supporter of children’s causes and recipient of many awards.

He also molested his daughter when she was between the ages of 11 and 16. At the time, he was given a deferred prosecution, which was allowed to be kept secret. All child welfare investigative records have gone missing.

Her father resigned from his law firm and the Oklahoma Bar Association when she went public last year, and issued a statement saying he regretted causing his daughter pain.

For the past year, Lewis has worked with lawmakers to get a bill passed to raise the age victims can seek justice. She tried in the previous session, but it died in the Senate.

The biggest concern was about false allegations. A provision was added that would make it a felony to knowingly and willingly make a false allegation.

“I want to impress upon those people that the intent of the law is to punish people who are trying to maliciously harm someone by making a false claim, not someone who may have difficulty with the amount of evidence they have,” Lewis said. “There’s a very clear and important distinction there.”

Lewis remembers getting her draft of a letter to send to lawmakers from McDugle with an added paragraph with his account of being abused. Even knowing that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be abused by age 18, Lewis was still surprised.

“I was floored. Stunned,” she said. “Plus, I’m a survivor myself, and it’s still shocking, even to me, when someone comes forward. On top of all of that, I was impressed with his undaunted courage in coming out so publicly.”

Lewis notes that McDugle’s experiences get to why the bills are necessary.

“First of all, he hasn’t really told anyone until now at age 50, which speaks to the age expansion that we’re seeking, since studies show that most survivors don’t come forward until their early 40s and by that time the current statute of limitations on the books have run out,” Lewis said. “Secondly, the name of the criminal bill is The Hidden Predator Act, since bills like this in other states have revealed previously unknown predators still at large.”

That is what McDugle recently found out about his abuser.

“Who knows how many other children will be spared the horror of what happened to Rep. McDugle since he decided to shine a light on his past,” Lewis said. “And that’s one of the best aspects about these bills. They not only help survivors, but they also help children who are being abused right now, today.”

‘You’re not alone’: Through her work, Lewis discovered a lack of outreach programs to young people who may be currently suffering abuse. She developed a curriculum for teens.

“I didn’t know what to expect, but amazingly well over a dozen teens revealed their own trauma to me,” she said. “It was incredibly powerful, and we made sure they talked to the appropriate professionals on site and got counseling.”

In the year since Lewis became the face of this issue in Oklahoma, she has found a “silent minority” of hundreds of child sexual abuse survivors. She started support groups in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, and one is about to begin in Bartlesville.

“It’s profound. It’s empowering and liberating,” Lewis said. “You realize, maybe for the first time, that you’re not alone. There are vast numbers of people who are suffering in silence this very minute, and they don’t have to.

“Yes, coming forward is scary, but the support people show far outweighs the fear.”