Dana Ferguson

dferguson@argusleader.com

The South Dakota House of Representatives approved a measure Wednesday on a 58-10 vote that would bar transgender students from using bathrooms, locker rooms and shower facilities of the gender with which they identify if they don't correspond with their biological sex.

Under the proposal, transgender students who don't want to use the facilities based on their biological gender would have to submit a request to their school district for accommodation in separate facilities.

Rep. Fred Deutsch, R-Florence, the bill's author, said the measure is designed to ensure the privacy of transgender and non-transgender students in the most private areas in schools. He said the federal government has overstepped its authority in drafting Title IX regulations that require school districts to accommodate transgender students.

"The federal government is now telling our schools that these students must have full, unrestricted access to restrooms, locker rooms and shower rooms," Deutsch said. "This means our schools must allow biologic boys and girls to use the same facilities together regardless of biologic sex."

Debate on the floor largely followed party lines with Republicans favoring the measure and Democrats opposing it.

Rep. Steve Haugaard, R-Sioux Falls, supported the bill and said the state needs to reconsider it should allow the "movement of transgenderism" to continue.

"We're endorsing confusion in the lives of little kids for whom we're responsible," Haugaard said. "And we think we're doing the right thing, but this is an epidemic in our society."

Rep. Karen Soli, D-Sioux Falls, said lawmakers shouldn't legislate the issue and instead should allow teachers and parents to decide how to facilitate bathroom access for transgender students.

"We don't need to single out and further traumatize our young people with an intrusive law mandating who uses what bathroom," Soli said.

The U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice have sided with transgender students in saying that school districts that require them to use a separate restroom are in violation of Title IX rules.

A handful of school districts across the country have faced legal challenges to similar policies that bar transgender students from using bathrooms and locker rooms of the gender with which they identify. The U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice have sided with transgender students in saying that school districts that require them to use a separate restroom are in violation of Title IX rules.

The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota has vocally opposed the bill and launched a petition this month aimed at preventing lawmakers from acting as "potty police" in legislating which restrooms transgender students can use.

South Dakota Democratic Party spokesman Michael Ewald in a statement Wednesday said the Republican bill sends a damaging message to transgender students.

"Separate but equal bathrooms aren't going to help students feel comfortable in their educational environment," Ewald said. "There are real costs to this imagined issue."

The Human Rights Campaign, a national LBGT advocacy group, in a statement Wednesday said South Dakota could be the first state to pass a law barring transgender students from certain facilities and called the measure "alarming and appalling."

The chamber's decision isn't final. The Senate and Gov. Dennis Daugaard must approve the measure before it can become law.

Daugaard said he hasn't yet read the bill, but said at face value it seemed like a good idea.

“In concept I don’t see any problem with that," Daugaard said. "It seems like a good accommodation.”

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