This intelligent-looking gentleman is South Dakota State Rep. Roger Hunt (R-Brandon). He's really pissed that the South Dakota High School Activities Association had a policy whch allowed parents to notify schools of their child's gender identity.
From there the school collects information from pertinent individuals and sources including family members, friends, and teachers. In addition to the testimonials the association also requires written verification from a health care professional attesting to the child’s professed gender expression.
This is South Dakota. We haven’t adopted the East Coast culture. We haven’t adopted the West Coast culture. We maintain our own culture.
--Rep. Hunt
And by God, in Roger Hunt's South Dakota,
transgender people don't deserve to be treated equally!
So Hunt has proposed a bill that would require visual inspection to be used as part of a process to officially determine a person's gender in South Dakota...including (probably especially) for athletes.
A high school athletic group enacted a policy last year that allows students to decide for themselves which gender group they will compete with. But some lawmakers are unhappy with that concept.
So, the issue appears poised to carry into the 2016 legislative session, and one possible approach would be a law that may remove a person’s right to decide for themselves.
That’s right, Rep. Hunt would force families to have their children’s genitals examined against their will.
Hunt’s proposal hits at the heart of both conservative outdated views on science and hypocrisy surrounding small government.
--Tim Peacock, Peacock Panache
Having the opportunity for trans youth to be able to participate in sports in a safe space with the sex they identify with is one of the most monumental things that have happened in our community. Especially in South Dakota.
--Kendra Heathscott, transgender activist
The Office for Civil Rights has clarified that discrimination against transgender students falls under Title IX guidelines and that public schools are accountable for ensuring the safety and inclusion of all students in school-sponsored activities.
It's one thing to oppose that stance on moral or religious grounds. It's quite another to leave your state or school district vulnerable to a federal lawsuit because your personal beliefs run counter to the norm. Perhaps that's why 77 percent of South Dakota high school superintendents favored the development of a statewide transgender eligibility policy in a recent SDHSAA survey.
We’ve had female wrestlers in this state, not because of gender identity but because the sports isn’t offered for girls. People grumbled about it and time marched on. Many found it inspiring.
Consider for a moment the inner turmoil and personal pain experienced by those who feel like strangers in their own bodies, then try to make high school sports eligibility seem like a comparatively weighty issue. Somewhere amid that perspective is where positive change resides.
Do you want state officials to “visually inspect” young people to tell them what team they’re on or do you aspire to South Dakota being seen as empathetic, open-minded, proactive, inclusive?
We maintain our own culture, as Mr. Hunt said. Every day we decide what we want it to be.
--Stu Whitley, Argus Leader