SOUTH DAKOTA(Washington Insider Magazine) – Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota passed an anti-transgender sports legislation into law on Thursday, prohibiting transgender girls and women from participating in school sports leagues that correspond to their gender identity in post-secondary institution and schools.
Senate Bill 46 was presented just 2 months before Noem took office. According to the law, if a kid is harmed directly or indirectly as a result of a transgender student participating in a sport that corresponds to their gender identity, they can sue the organization, school, or educational institution that inflicted the harm.
According to ABC NEWS, lawsuits filed against schools, organizations, and agencies that follow the new legislation will be addressed by the state’s attorney general.
According to The Trevor Project, a suicide awareness and crisis response group for LGBTQ youth, it is the first anti-transgender legislation of the year.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, 2021 was a record breaking year for anti-LGBTQ policy, with more than 250 laws proposed and at least Seventeen becoming law.
LGBTQ rights groups around the country slammed the decision.
The Trevor Project raised worries about trans youth’s physical and mental health in the face of exclusionary policies.
In a study conducted by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, nearly half of trans youth said they had seriously considered suicide.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, trans youth frequently report feeling alienated and excluded in academic situations, and that discrimination puts them at a heightened risk for poor mental health, suicide, substance misuse, violence, and other health hazards.
Noem’s comments on the measure echo arguments made by opponents of trans women participating in sports, who claim that transgender women have a “biological” edge over women born female.
Experts say there’s no indication that transgender athletes are preferentially dominating sports associated with their gender identity or that they do have a competitive advantage in their sport.
In March 2021, Dr. Eric Vilain, a geneticist who researches sex distinctions in athletes, told NPR that testosterone influences performance in only a tiny number of sports and provides no benefit. There is no proof of this in the Texas measure that was under discussion.
Currently, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Olympics, and the governing bodies of national sports leagues in the United States allow transgender athletes to compete in sports that correspond to their gender identity.
The ACLU of South Dakota and the Trevor Project, among other opponents of the new law, have pledged to continue to fight these laws.
