A Senate panel?has?rejected?a bill that?would?restrict?transgender athletes from?girls?and women’s?sports?teams.??
The bill?would?also require?that?South Dakota?schools and athletic associations?verify?all?athlete’s gender.?
The bill’s author is?Republican Representative Rhonda Milstead. She says the proposal?is an attempt to assure equal competition by restricting?transgender athletes?from?women’s teams.??
“There is not anyone that can deny that males have a competitive advantage over females. My goodness, you look at your house. Who carries the heavy suitcase in your house? Who digs the hole for the tree? We know that males are physically more able than we are to do things. And this plays out in sports.”?
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?there is?a decision?on?whether to?let them?compete.?Only one transgender girl has played on a?girls’ sports?team.???
Opponents of the bill say it?if?it passed, it would?open?lawsuits?against?any institution that?didn’t follow the requirements.??
Republican State Senator Lee?Schoenbeck?voted against the bill.??
This is not a South Dakota issue, we already know that,”?Schoenbeck?says. “All the south Dakota institutions that are charged to look out for us are saying it’s not a?South Dakota problem. It’s a national cause for certain people. This creates the ability to use our states courts to sue any school that competes in South Dakota, no matter where that school is based out of.”?
Schoenbeck?says?the bill would have created a mountain of new paperwork for schools and the athletics association. He says no Republican ran for state government trying to grow government and called the bill a “liberal government approach.”?
The Senate panel rejected the bill 6 to 3,?which?effectively?kills the bill for this year.?
