WASHINGTON, D.C. – National attention continues to build for Gov. Dennis Daugaard to veto invasive legislation that singles out transgender youth for discrimination by prohibiting them from using the restroom that matches their gender identity. The “Genital Check Bill” would require students to prove their sex by submitting a birth certificate, blood or DNA sample. If signed into law, South Dakota will become the first state to adopt such a policy.
One of the bill’s lead sponsors in the Senate, Senator Brock Greenfield (R-Clark) even suggested during a hearing earlier this week that a “visual accounting” would help determine which restroom students would be allowed to use.
“House Bill 1008 specifically targets transgender youth – students who already experience higher levels of bullying and isolation from their peers,” Matt McTighe, executive director of Freedom for All Americans said. “No other state in the nation has passed a bill that singles out transgender students and prohibits them from using the restroom. And no state has ever passed a law that goes to such great lengths to encroach on the privacy of its students.”
Governor Daugaard – who earlier this week claimed he never met a transgender person - has made no indication if he will veto the bill. However, pressure is growing across the country as business leaders and parents wait to see if the Republican governor will stand for students’ privacy and modesty, or if he will sign the Genital Check Bill into law.
The bill passed out of the Senate by a narrow 20-15 vote, and seven Republicans in the chamber voted against advancing the measure. One Republican who voted against the bill, Sen. Craig Tieszen (R-Rapid City), noted that the bill was “causing pain to a significant minority in our community.”
“This bill provides absolutely no protections for the privacy of students. Governor Daugaard must do the right thing and veto this bill,” McTighe added. “No student should be discriminated against because they are transgender, and no student should have their privacy violated in order to use the restroom. House Bill 1008 goes too far.”
Tuesday’s hearing included a great deal of discussion around lab testing as a guide for determining which restrooms students could use. At one point, Senator Bernie Hunhoff (D-Yankton) wondered: “Is a student, a grade school student, supposed to carry around his lab work to school, and to show it for entry into a bathroom or locker[room]?”
Freedom for All Americans is the bipartisan campaign to secure full nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people nationwide. Our work brings together Republicans and Democrats, businesses large and small, people of faith, and allies from all walks of life to make the case for comprehensive nondiscrimination protections that ensure everyone is treated fairly and equally.
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