Transgender bathroom, gender identity debates fizzle to a close in Pierre

PIERRE — A proposal to prohibit teaching gender identification in schools ended before debate could begin Thursday in the Statehouse.

Before the Senate Education Committee could take up its conversation on Senate Bill 160, which aimed to bar gender identity education in grades seven and under, the bill's sponsor gutted the bill, replacing it with a proposal to let parents opt their kids out of standardized testing.

The move to overhaul the bill marks the final chapter in a series of conversations about bathroom access and gender identity discussion in Pierre. A pair of other bills were tabled earlier this week.

More: South Dakota lawmakers defeat transgender bathroom proposal

Education and civil liberties advocates sat ready to oppose the gender identity bill Thursday and were surprised to see a last-second amendment that struck the proposal's language and replaced it with a new subject.

State and national groups celebrated the move to drop the proposal and other debates on bathroom access.

"We’re relieved that it was scrapped in committee," said Nathan Smith, public policy director at GLSEN, a national group that advocates for making schools safe for LGBT students. "Any time a state Legislature considers anti-trans legislation it sort of rings alarm bells because we know that’s not a good road for states to go down."

The brief conversations over gender identity and transgender bathroom access come two years after the Legislature approved and Gov. Dennis Daugaard vetoed a proposal to bar transgender students from using bathrooms, changing rooms and locker rooms that don't match their biological sex at birth.

Legislative leaders told reporters that the issue had likely run its course in the 2018 legislative session, but constituent interest could bring the proposal back in the future.

“I would assume that we won’t see anything but until we declare sine die, you never know what might resurrect itself,” said House Majority Leader Lee Qualm, R-Platte

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