House lawmakers are passing a bill that restricts women’s sports teams to athletes identified as female at birth.
Supporters say they want to preserve the integrity of sports teams. Critics say the bill excludes transgender athletes from joining sports teams based on their gender identity.
The bill would require a written statement from every high school and college athlete in the state to verify their age, biological sex and whether they’ve taken steroids. Their school would collect those statements.
If a school or the activities association has reasonable cause to suspect a female student athlete is not biologically female, the school could remove the athlete from the sport or team. If an athlete is wrongfully accused, they can take their case to the courts.
Republican Representative Rhonda Milstead is the prime sponsor of the measure. She says her bill could protect girls and women’s teams from trans athletes who might have an unfair competitive advantage.
“If it turns out that they mislead someone, if it comes up, if a student, a teacher, a coach would challenge it and say, ‘Did you say you were this and you weren’t really this?’ they could just be removed from the team,” Milstead says. “It’s as simple as that.”
Lawmakers opposed to the measure say it unfairly targets transgender athletes. Democrat Representative Ryan Cwach says it could also affect non-trans female athletes who get unfairly investigated.
“They don’t get a trial, they get removed from the team,” Cwach says. “They’re not allowed to participate in the sport. A high school kid couldn’t participate. You know what they have to do instead? You know what they have to get satisfaction under this bill? They have to go to court. They have to prove their sex.”
The state high school activities association created a transgender athlete policy almost a decade ago. It requires that a trans athlete provide documentation on their gender identity before a decision is made whether to let them compete. Since it’s been in place only one transgender girl has played on a girl’s sports team.
The ACLU of South Dakota says the bill violates both the United States Constitution and Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, which protects all students from discrimination based on sex.
House lawmakers voted 50 to 17 to pass the legislation. The bill now goes to the Senate.
