As I wrote last week, the bill would require students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their biological sex, defined as “the physical condition of being male or female as determined by a person’s chromosomes and anatomy as identified at birth”, even if that sex doesn’t match the gender they identify with.
Advertisement
In October a year ago, the US Justice Department and Education Department came out in support of a Virginia transgender teenager, Gavin Grimm, who is now suing for access to the boys’ bathrooms at his high school. He said he’d considered any new information submitted by out-of-state interests, but as far as opinions go, “I’m less concerned about opinion outside of South Dakota”, he said.
Lewis said that Daugaard had been “listening and asking us questions”, though he said the governor had not indicated what he would do with the bill. “We are grateful that he accepted our invitation and we asked him to veto HB 1008”.
If signed by Daugaard, South Dakota would be the first state in the country to enact such a law. Parents of transgender students, trans equality advocates nationwide, and celebrities including Caitlyn Jenner have denounced the bill as a risky attack on an already vulnerable population.
Rapid City Area Schools will take a breather from public comments on its facilities plan because of developments in the South Dakota Legislature.
Proponents of the legislation say it would help protect children and ensure everyone’s privacy, but its passage has inserted South Dakota into the center of a national debate about transgender rights and access to restrooms and locker rooms.
Once passed, the law restrooms, shower rooms and locker rooms in schools will be divided based on the biological sex of the students, ThinkProgress also explained. Providing a faculty or single-stall bathroom as an alternative singles trans students out and over time may increase a trans student’s likelihood of disengaging from school or dropping out altogether, notes the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network.
The former Olympic decathlete known as Bruce Jenner asked Governor Dennis Daugaard to veto House Bill No. 1008.
“It’s certainly of great concern to many people”, Daugaard said.
Advertisement
Along with the rest of South Dakota, Lewis will now wait to see if the governor will side with the bill’s sponsors in restricting which bathrooms transgender students can use, or veto it, leaving the current system the way it is. “This is a big deal”. Federal officials have intervened and threatened to cut off Title IX funds to districts that do not allow transgender students to use their preferred bathrooms and changing areas, though some conservatives have questioned the government’s interpretation of that rule.
