Will This Governor Sign 'Unprecedented and Extreme' Bill Attacking Trans Students?

South Dakota could make history as the first state in the nation to bar transgender youth in public schools from using restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity.

All that’s missing is the governor’s signature on newly passed legislation. 

Thomas Lewis, a transgender 18-year-old senior at Lincoln High School in Sioux Falls, told state lawmakers that such a law “makes me feel like I’m not a human being.”

According to Kyle Palazzolo, Staff Attorney in the Midwest Regional Office of Lambda Legal, the legislation, HB 1008, is “an attack on some of the most vulnerable members of our community, transgender young people.”

“An attack like this is unprecedented and extreme,” Palazzolo said.

The legislation states: “Every restroom, locker room, and shower room located in a public elementary or secondary school that is designated for student use and is accessible by multiple students at the same time shall be designated for and used only by students of the same biological sex.” It states that “biological sex” is “determined by a person’s chromosomes and anatomy as identified at birth.”

It allows for “reasonable accommodation,” such ” a single-occupancy restroom, a unisex restroom, or the controlled use of a restroom, locker room, or shower room that is designated for use by faculty.” But it must be an accommodation “that does not impose an undue hardship on a school district.”