South Dakota’s Senate Bill 49 is a transparent attack on the most vulnerable of high-school students.
The Republican South Dakota legislature is declaring war on trans athletes. Senate Bill 49 (SB 49) would pretty much keep trans students out of high school athletics.
The culprits behind SB 49 are State Sen. Jim Bolin and State Rep. Thomas Brunner. Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, just elected in November, had actively campaigned against transgender rights. So she is likely to sign SB 49 into law when it reaches her desk.
Last year, then Gov. Dennis Daugaard vetoed a bill which would have forced trans HS students to use bathrooms for the gender which they were assigned at birth. Though a Republican himself, Gov. Daugaard saw no merit in such blatant discrimination. With Daugaard out of office, Republicans are now free to resume their obsession with high school toilets and risk having South Dakota become a target of boycotts and national ridicule.
This is yet another reason why it’s necessary to pay as much attention to state government as it is to the federal government.
