A House committee is narrowly rejecting a proposal that denies the right to change the “sex” designation on a birth certificate. However, House lawmakers have revived the bill using a procedural maneuver.
Republican Fred Deutsch says his bill is aimed at solving a problem in the South Dakota courts.
Deutsch says, now courts can rule differently on whether to allow people the right to make gender changes on their birth certificate. Deutsch does not want the courts to allow such a change at all.
The judicial system reports that since 2016 South Dakota courts have considered just over a dozen cases where someone’s sexual identification has been changed on a birth certificate. Two such requests were denied.
Deutsch says his bill is not designed as an attack on the transgender community.
“I would love to see a bill that’s well put together to help them deal with the issues challenging them, but not to conflate the word sex on a birth certificate with the word ‘gender marker.’ Gender doesn’t appear anywhere in our law. So, let them bring a bill that puts it into law if it helps them. Let us have that debate.”
The committee rejected the bill, but hours later, House lawmakers requested that the bill be brought to the House floor.
The outcome is concerning to Seymur Otterman, from Sioux Falls, who spoke against the proposal. Otterman says it’s disheartening to repeatedly see bills that target the transgender community.
“We are just trying to get by in a society that puts us down at every opportunity. These bills just add on to the discrimination that we already face.”
The return of the bill to House floor means it will be scheduled for a vote in the coming days.