Deutsch says he still believes the bill was a good piece of legislation, but he says the national focus on South Dakota should be on the state’s business environment and the excellent work being done it the state’s schools.
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South Dakota Senate passed a bill Tuesday, that will raise state sales tax a half-cent to help fund a salary increase for teachers. Quietly, without announcement, Daugaard after the bill passed, did meet with a group of constituents who are transgender.
According to the Williams Institute, a think tank at the University of California Los Angeles law school, South Dakota is home to an estimated 1,360 transgender youth ages 13-19.
The governor initially offered a positive reaction to the proposal, but said he needed to research the issue and listen to testimony before making a decision. She said that’s the true testament of democracy.
By forcing the transgender student-known in the media as “Student A”-to use a separate locker room, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights ruled that Township High School District 211 had discriminated against the student “on the basis of sex”.
You have no idea”, said 18-year-old Thomas Lewis, a transgender high school student in Sioux Falls”. But he says Daugaard’s veto means that such support now goes beyond his friends and extends to state government. He met with transgender students and LGBT activists last week to hear their concerns.
“Local school districts can, and have, made necessary restroom and locker room accommodations that serve the best interests of all students, regardless of biological sex or gender identity“, Daugaard said.
That resolution also “encourages state legislatures to enact laws that protect student privacy and limit the use of restrooms, locker rooms and similar facilities” to students based exclusively on their birth sex.
South Dakota would have been the first state to take such a step.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Human Rights Campaign called the bill discriminatory, but supporters said it was created to protect students’ privacy.
House Bill 1008 does not address any pressing issue concerning the school districts of South Dakota. State House of Representatives Speaker Tim Moore, a Republican, said he would consider legislation to block the measure.
‘Although there have been promises by an outside entity to provide legal defense to a school district, this provision is not memorialized in the bill, ‘ he stated.
Money from the tax increase will aid South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard’s plan to increase teacher salary statewide.
His chief of staff, Tony Venhuizen, says the governor wouldn’t choose the option of letting the legislation become law by not signing it.
Last week, Daugaard met with a group of transgender individuals who opposed the bill.
“Preserving local control is particularly important because this bill would place every school district in the hard position of following state law while knowing it openly invites federal litigation”, the statement continued.
Dennis Daugaard vetoed a bill Tuesday that would have required students in the state to use the bathroom of the gender they were born with.
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H.B. 1008 would have gone into effect at midnight if Daugaard, a Republican, didn’t act first.
