South Dakota just passed a bill that the Human Rights Campaign calls "extreme and dangerous," saying it "attacks the rights of transgender children in public schools." The bill will prevent transgender students from using restrooms and other facilities consistent with their gender identity. The bill would require transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their sex at birth, rather than their current sex.

The Senate voted 20-15 to send the bill to Republican Governor Dennis Daugaard, who initially responded positively, but then said he'd need to study it more before making a decision. Under the proposed plan, schools would provide a "reasonable accommodation" for transgender students, such as a single-occupancy bathroom, or the "controlled use" of a staff-designated restroom, locker room, or shower room.

"History has never looked kindly upon those who attack the basic civil rights of their fellow Americans, and history will not treat kindly those who support this discriminatory measure," Chad Griffin, the president of the LGBT-rights organization Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement Tuesday.

Federal officials have already said that barring students from restrooms that match their gender identity is prohibited under Title IX. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Education stated that transgender students are protected from sex-based discrimination under Title IX, and they instruct public schools to treat transgender students consistent with their gender identity in single-sex classes, so that a student who identifies as a transgender boy is allowed entry to a boys-only class, and a student who identifies as a transgender girl is allowed entry to a girls-only class.

Again, this is the actual federal law. If this bill is approved, South Dakota school districts are at risk of losing federal funds under Title IX, which would force them into choosing between state and federal law. Not only does this bill go against Title IX, but the proposed plan actually threatens the safety of students, rather than protects them.

Republican Sen. David Omdahl, a supporter of the bill, has a history of being publicly transphobic, and at a recent event said, "I'm sorry if you're so twisted you don't know who you are." When asked about the bill, he continued, "I'm telling you right now, it's about protecting the kids, and I don't even understand where our society is these days."

The truth is, this bill doesn't protect anyone — it actually targets transgender students. To further prove this, parents, teachers, students, school counselors, clergy, and mental health professionals wrote emails and traveled to Pierre, South Dakota from all corners of the state to testify and demonstrate the ways in which this bill actually does harm to transgender students. Not one South Dakota citizen testified to the necessity of this bill.

“If you take this bill and substitute any religion, race or ethnicity for the word ‘transgender’, it becomes obvious that it’s blatantly discriminatory,” said Carrie Davis, Chief Programs & Policy Officer at The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York City. “We learned long ago that restricting the rights of one group of students in order to make another group more comfortable is profoundly flawed and is a fundamentally anti-human rights stance. It goes against everything we’re based on as a society.”

A transgender student named Thomas Lewis in South Dakota tells Fox the passage of the bill is "shocking." Thomas is in his senior year at Lincoln High School in Sioux Falls, the state's most populous city.

"At this point, I'm hoping that the governor has a sense of humanity and the common sense not to write this bill into law," said Thomas, who is planning to attend college in Minnesota. "I am so glad to be leaving soon. I can escape the oppression that my home state wants to put on me."