Dakota senate passes transgender ban

It is now up to Gov. Dennis Daugaard as to whether South Dakota’s transgender students will be banned from restrooms and locker rooms.

The state Senate passed the bill Tuesday in a 20-15 vote, after the state House approved it 58-10 last month.

“I generally haven’t met with proponents or opponents of other bills”, he said at the time.

The U.S. Department of Education has already required one school in IL to allow a transgender student access to the girl’s locker room, finding that a separate changing facility was in violation of federal law, discriminating against the female student in the basis of her sex under Title IX.

The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota and Human Rights Campaign have been vocal in their opposition to the measure and have called on Daugaard to veto the legislation.

“I have not met a transgender person that I’m aware of”, Daugaard admitted last week while addressing whether he’d sign the proposed bathroom bill.

“Do you feel it appropriate for a 13-year-old girl to be exposed to the anatomy of a boy?”

The Legislature’s passage of the bill is “shocking”, said Thomas Lewis, a transgender student in his senior year at Lincoln High School in Sioux Falls, the state’s most populous city.

If signed by the Governor, South Dakota would be in direct conflict with the U.S. Department of Education and non-discrimination protections under Title IX of the United States Education Amendments of 1972.

“Maybe this bill was not meant to be disrespectful, but I would suggest this: If an entire community says that we are hurting them, who are we to say that we aren’t?” said Sen. Lawmakers heard from South Dakota parents, teachers, students, school counselors, clergy, and mental health professionals who wrote emails, and traveled to Pierre from all corners of the state to testify and demonstrate the ways in which this bill does real harm to transgender students.

“It begs the question; do our state politicians truly represent the people of South Dakota, or do they represent outsider lobbyists and interest groups?”

The bill provides that with written parental permission, affected students may request a “reasonable accommodation… that does not impose an undue hardship on a school district”, such as use of a single-occupancy restroom.

Democrats, arguing against the bill in the Senate on Tuesday, also raised concerns that the measure may trigger the federal government to pull money from public schools, BuzzFeed News noted.