Some Senate Republicans are using a legislative maneuver to revive a bill that targets transgender girl athletes.
The bill would restrict transgender women athletes from competing on high school and college girl’s and women’s teams. The bill’s author says she wants to prevent any athlete from having an unfair competitive advantage.
The bill essentially died in a legislative committee on Wednesday. Supporters of another bill targeting transgender people used a similar maneuver earlier in the session. That bill eventually died.
Senator Maggie Sutton is the prime sponsor of the bill in the Senate. She says the committee should not have rejected the bill.
“This is a very simple bill. It’s a bill to protect women’s sports,” Sutton says. “It’s not complicated. It’s just a simple bill. It’s not against transgenders. It’s just to protect women’s sports. That’s all it is.”
The bill also requires that schools collect written waivers documenting every student athlete’s “reproductive biology.” There are roughly 40-thousand student athletes in the state.
Critics say it invites potential lawsuits. They say it violates title seven and title nine of the Civil Rights Act, by discriminating based on sex.
South Dakota is one of more than 20 states considering legislative measures to restrict trans athletes from participating in girl’s and women’s high school and college sports.
On Monday, the Senate will have to calendar the bill before it would even vote on whether to pass the measure along to the governor.
