South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem announced on International Women's Day that she is celebrating the occasion by signing soon a bill that protects women's rights from biological males in sports.
"In South Dakota, we're celebrating #InternationalWomensDay by defending women's sports! I'm excited to sign this bill very soon," she said in Twitter on Tuesday, March 9.
Her post retweets that of the American Principles' that proclaimed the good news on the bill's signing in the South Dakota Senate on the same day.
In South Dakota, we're celebrating #InternationalWomensDay by defending women's sports! I'm excited to sign this bill very soon. https://t.co/OU15HOwp2r
"” Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) March 8, 2021
"We anticipate that when Governor Noem signs the bill, South Dakota will be the first state this year to pass legislation of this sort," Noem's spokesman told Fox News.
Kota TV reported that South Dakota Senate passed the bill through a 20-15 vote on Monday after the South Dakota House passed the bill with a 50-17 vote last February. While Christian Headlines said that the bill is entitled "Women's Fairness In Sports Bill" and referred to as House Bill 1217.
According to the South Dakata Legislature website, the bill was introduced by Representative Rhonda Milstead and co-sponsored by 26 other Representatives and seven senators. Specifically, these are Representatives Aaron Aylward, Fred Deutsch, Becky Drury, Mary Fitzgerald, Tim Goodwin, Lana Greenfield, Steven Haugaard, Charlie Hoffman, Taffy Howard, Kevin Jensen, Phil Jensen, Trish Ladner, Sam Marty, Liz May, John Mills, Tina Mulally, Scott Odenbach, Marty Overweg, Carl Perry, Sue Peterson, Tom Pischke, Tony Randolph, Rebecca Reimer, Bethany Soye, Richard Vasgaard, Marli Wiese; Speaker of the House Spencer Gosch; and Senators Maggie Sutton, Al Novstrup, Jim Stalzer, Marsha Symens, John Wilk, and Larry Zikmund. Sutton is Milstead's counterpart in the senate as the former is the bill's primary sponsor there.
The four-paged bill is officially entitled An Act To Promote Continued Fairness In Women's Sports. It defines athletic teams and sports participation according to designation by sex as a "male team," "female team," or "coeducational team" or sport. It clarifies that the female team or sport is reserved only for the biologically female.
"A team or sport designated as being female is available only to participants who are female, based on their biological sex, as verified in accordance with SS13-7-2," it said.
The bill provides the prerequisites a school or "sanctioning entity" must do to verify the gender of the student so that acceptance to the appropriate team could be done in due fairness to those concerned and their respective rights as male or female.
For this to be implemented, the school or sanctioning entity must obtain a written statement duly signed by the parent verifying the student's age biological sex with corresponding proof either through "genetics and reproductive biology," and that the student "is not taking or has not taken" performance enhancement drugs within the year.
The school or sanctioning entity is given given the authority to "remove" or "prohibit further participation in" any sport or athletic team "for the duration of the school year" the student who has provided a false or misleading information.
Christian Headlines reported that there were organizations who opposed the passing of the bill. These were the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota, the South Dakota High School Activities Association, the Sioux Falls Sports Authority, the South Dakota Board of Regents, the School Administrators of South Dakota, and The Transformation Project.
"In an attempt to 'level the playing field,' House Bill 1217 excludes an entire group of women and girls from meaningful participation in sports. House Bill 1217 isn't about protecting fairness in women's sports. It's about erasing and excluding trans people from participation in all aspects of public life," American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota Advocacy Manager Jett Jonelis told Kota TV in an interview.
While Sutton argued, during the reading of the bill prior to it being sent to the 41st Legislative Day for the Senate Affairs Committee's review, that "allowing transgender students to participate could damage sports and invalidate Title IX", as per Kota TV.
President Joseph Biden, Jr. signed Executive Order "Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation" last January forcing schools regardless of religious affiliations and beliefs to allow boys in girls sports. A string of legislative actions were taken contrary to this in the Senate by Utah Senator Mike Lee who introduced "Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act" on February 5 and echoed by state legislators such as Mississipi Representative Angela Hill in addition to South Dakota's.
While various athletes including LGBT groups condemned Biden's executive order along with netizens last January as #BidenErasedWomen trended in Twitter and with former President Donald Trump during the Conservative Political Action Conference last February.
