THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

The House also passed House Bill 1005—a second anti-transgender bill that would prohibit transgender students from using multi-occupancy public school facilities consistent with their gender identity, including: shower rooms, bathrooms, changing rooms and sleeping rooms for overnight trips. The bill now moves to the Senate.

Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem authored Senate Bill 46. In an exchange during the House State Affairs Committee's debate on SB 46 last week, the governor's chief of staff, Mark Miller, defended the bill by likening transgender kids to terrorists, saying, "By putting it in law, we are ensuring that what we're seeing all over the country does not happen in South Dakota. It's sort of like terrorism, you want to keep it over there, not let it get to here."

HRC State Legislative Director and Senior Counsel Cathryn Oakley said, "The eagerness with which Gov. Kristi Noem and South Dakota legislators have worked to pass Senate Bill 46—legislation attacking transgender kids—reveals their backward priorities and that Noem's national political aspirations override any sense of responsibility she has to fulfill her oath to protect South Dakotans.

"South Dakota legislators have not pointed to an example of any problem worth legislating against in the state, because — simply put — no such problem exists, not in South Dakota or in any of the states that have passed discriminatory anti-transgender legislation. Sports teach our kids important lessons like discipline, teamwork, responsibility, and work ethic. It is unjust and mean-spirited to shut transgender young people out of the opportunity to play with their friends and learn those lessons."