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Rep. Hunt Wants to Look at Transgender Kids’ Genitalia

Get that legislator a shoe cam and a Subway sandwich….

An interim committee of the South Dakota Legislature met last Wednesday to rehash questions about the transgender participation policy the South Dakota High School Activities Association established last year. Unable to abide by their failure to tinker with this just and fair policy created by the high schools for themselves through their own activities association, certain regressive legislators continue to look for ways to use the force of the state to harass transgender adolescents.

Those trans-harassers, led by Rep. Roger Hunt (R-25/Brandon) moved beyond their faux arguments about the sanctity of data on birth certificates and voted, on a slim 6–5 margin, to recommend that high schools determine students’ gender by ordering them to drop their pants:

The proposal from Rep. Roger Hunt, R-Brandon, would rely on official birth certificates and visual inspections for determining gender rather than allowing people to decide and declare their gender on their own.

He said gender is determined at conception and the transgender debate is riding the gay marriage wave.

“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,” Hunt said [Bart Pfankuch, “‘Visual Inspection’ Could Be Part of State Law to Determine Gender Identity,” Rapid City Journal, 2015.08.23].

Rep. Roger Hunt, R-25/Brandon
Rep. Roger Hunt, R-25/Brandon

Yes, transgender students. Roger Hunt wants to look at your genitals.

Need I say anything else to indicate the disgustingness of Rep. Hunt’s proposal?

Need I ask Rep. Hunt if he would submit to a similar Jensenesque policy requiring every member of the South Dakota Legislature to submit to visual inspection of his or her genitals before being allowed to access the men’s or women’s bathrooms of the Capitol?

Go ahead, Rep. Hunt. Float a bill demanding children to drop their pants to satisfy your desire to force a consistency between biological sex and psychological gender identity, a consistency that science says is not valid. Your refusal to accept the fact that other people’s brains and bodies don’t work like yours and that that difference is not a mark of mortal sin only harms kids who are trying to figure out their identity. Your demand that they expose themselves to your scornful eye harms their dignity and yours.

p.s.: Mark Chase of the Family Policy Council told the interim committee (starting at 1:29:16 in the archived meeting audio) that transgender students will experience harassment and bullying if they try to participate on a team that doesn’t match their apparent biological sex. Thus, Chase argued, repeating the exact language he used before the SDHSAA Board of Directors on April 21, 2015, the SDHSAA policy that allows transgender kids to participate on the team that matches their gender identity is responsible for the harassment and bullying, “And no amount of ‘sensitivity’ training will stop this.”

Get it? Bullies will be bullies, no matter what we do. If we try to change that, it’s our fault. So we have to accept the bullies’ judgment and join them in punishing the kids they bully. That’s the sick thinking we get from the Family Policy Council in its prosecution of the culture war.

99 Comments

  1. Lynn 2015-08-24 16:00

    Some of these legislators sure seem to have a fixation with transgender and LGBTQ. Could it be a repressed attraction? Will they bring Josh Duggar back for further more in depth consultation? Would a particular adult oriented escort service experience satisfy their needs?

    How about these legislators focus on dealing with REAL issues our state seems put off year after year and leave their personal curiosities to their private lives.

  2. Roger Cornelius 2015-08-24 16:08

    What a bunch of freakin’ perverts, the lost of them.
    How well with this “visual inspection” go over with the parents of minor children?
    And, most importantly, will Roger Hunt be conducting these “visual inspections” personally? If not, who is in line to do the job?
    The South Dakota legislature has done a lot of stupid and dumb things over the years, but this reprehensible.

  3. mike from iowa 2015-08-24 16:20

    Guy sounds like a pedo-perv.

  4. mike from iowa 2015-08-24 16:23

    Josh Duggar’d be the best choice to mol…..check children’s genders for them. He needs the job.

  5. Lynn 2015-08-24 16:58

    It’s unfortunate but with the way things are in this state I’d advise those families with Transgender, Intersex and kids dealing with Gender Dysphoria to move out of South Dakota to a state like Minnesota preferably as close to the Twin Cities as possible where there are a number of well established and respected programs and less of a chance in dealing with bigotry.

    The number of homeless and runaway kids within the LGBTQ community is high and for those who are transgender it is quite a bit higher. There are resources and safe housing available for those kids looking for options other than suicide if they feel trapped and are suffering abuse here in South Dakota. Those kids can get the professional help and support they need to move forward and have a chance to be better adjusted and thrive in life whichever path their journey takes them.

  6. Rorschach 2015-08-24 17:13

    That’s all Ted Klaudt was doing – checking to make sure those foster kids had the equipment they were supposed to have. If it works for Ted Klaudt … what, it didn’t work for Ted Klaudt?

    Fortunately, Rep. Hunt doesn’t have the authority to require anything. All he can do is delay the rules a bit. His “recommendation” need not be adopted.

  7. crossgrain 2015-08-24 17:19

    As the parent of two active teenagers, I can assure Mr. Hunt that kids don’t give a damn about this “issue”. They know gay kids, bi kids, trans kids, and nobody cares. Kids are kids. Kids are the future. We’re just listening to the dying bellows of a soon-to-be extinct species of bigot. Buh-bye Mr. Hunt. Whichever way the door swings, it’ll still hit you in the ass on your way out.

  8. Donald Pay 2015-08-24 17:27

    There’s something seriously, maybe even criminally, perverted about these folks, who would take government down the pants of children. I guess they have no decency, no sense of shame, no idea what being “Christian” means.

    Galatians 3:28New International Version (NIV): 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

    They have no understanding of sex, either, or of biology. Most things sexual are determined more in the brain through the interaction of homones and other chemicals and neural connections, not by gross physical anatomy. You can’t check that out in a physical exam.

    They are afloat, like pond scum, on a sea of ignorance

  9. Lynn 2015-08-24 17:28

    Senator Brock Greenfield has stated that he plans to bring all this up again in the next legislative session. More is coming. It’s an annual event here in SD with the usual players.

  10. Roger Elgersma 2015-08-24 17:45

    So why not have all the kids play on the same team. One Basketball team per school with boys girls boths opposites and like mes all on the same team. The reason that there are different teams for boys than for girls is because the boys are a little taller and stronger on average so not so many girls would get to play. What would Title 9 do about that. I was small and slow so did not get to play any of that. Should I have cried and decided I wanted to be a girl? Well I might not have made their team either. No matter what their brain is or was programed to be, they should play on the team that matches their body no matter how bad they hate what their body is. If they do not like who others think their body says they are, they agree since they do not like what their body says they are either. They should get over it and go on.

  11. bearcreekbat 2015-08-24 17:48

    But how do Hunt’s people document what they see under the clothes of these teenagers? If they take photos or videos they are producing child porn – a federal and state crime. And as Rorschach points out, Hunt cannot follow in the footsteps of his old friend and voting companion, Ted Klaudt, or Hunt could also end up in prison, so no touching allowed. Perhaps he could require “ultrasounds” as a condition precedent to participating in children’s sports activities.

    Hunt and his anti-women friends are certainly fixated on examining children and women’s private parts. Tsk, tsk, given their articulated religious preferences perhaps they might support the activities of the members of The Family International, formerly known as the Children of God, who, as our esteemed AG would most likely assure us, have a right to disobey laws based on religious convictions.

    Who are these folks who keep electing people like Hunt and Klaudt and others absolutely obsessed with children’s sexual activities and the bodies of women and children in our great state?

  12. grudznick 2015-08-24 18:08

    What about those devices used in airports to check passengers for bombs?

    You know, Mr. Hunt might go for that and if he spends a dime on this silliness a barbaric horde needs to march down Hilger’s Gulch with a flaming rail.

  13. Roger Cornelius 2015-08-24 18:10

    Last week I had a bi-annual medication review with a new doctor, he suggested I go off one medication I have been on for sometime. When I inquired why, he said research has shown that it is a medication looking for a disease.
    The same seems to apply to the transgender nonsense in Roger Hunt’s mind. Why did this all become such a problem, so perverts could look in children’s pants?

  14. Barry G. Wick 2015-08-24 18:17

    AT last, sir, have you no shame, no decency?

  15. Mrs. Nelson 2015-08-24 18:30

    If this creepy old dude’s ‘culture’ includes asking trans kids to drop trou, I want no freakin’ part of it.

    He would do well not to lump all South Dakotans into this ‘SD culture’ nonsense he is spewing forth. Bleh.

  16. grudznick 2015-08-24 18:34

    Why do people keep electing this fellow to the legislatures? And why doesn’t somebody turn him on to a good dandruff shampoo?

  17. Owen 2015-08-24 18:40

    pervert

  18. Joseph Nelson 2015-08-24 19:29

    Who says yellow journalism is dead? ;)

  19. happy camper 2015-08-24 19:34

    Just very ignorant. I’ve been reading more articles about fluid sexuality and how unconcerned young people are about labels, but transgender is the next big hurdle. Older people are just so restricted by thinking that a man has a penis and he is completely masculine, and a woman… Yes, they are repressed and very uncomfortable with sexuality in general. There was an article recently on Yahoo about Catlin Jenner and her accident. They did not use the name Bruce and the comments were 98% hate I kid you not. It was horrifying. These bigots have no idea what these kids go through. Their high rate of suicide, etc. These dinosaurs need to retire.

  20. larry kurtz 2015-08-24 19:35

    Lynn urging a white monoculture and asking people of diverse backgrounds to leave the chemical toilet? What a shocker.

  21. John Campbell 2015-08-24 19:40

    Human sexuality is understood differently (thank goodness) by younger generations, because they are letting go of much of the anxieties and restrictions older generation are bound by. I saw this article earlier today ( https://today.yougov.com/news/2015/08/20/third-young-americans-exclusively-heterosexual/ ) about how a third of young adults self-identify as something other than 100% straight. I don’t think there are more bisexual and gay people today than a generation ago – I believe people are just less afraid of openly acknowledging their own sexual reality. I felt relieved, because by far the greatest anxieties my friends had in high school and college were issues of sexuality, specifically being something (anything) different than what their parents’ generation expected of them. This kind of reactionary legislation of Rep. Hunt is abhorrent, but at the same time laughable – our kids are wayyyy smarter about issues of sexuality than we are.

  22. Lynn 2015-08-24 19:59

    Larry sober up, look at your nonsensical reply and try again.

    John Campbell your right kids today are far ahead of these bottom of the barrel legislators but the voters of South Dakota keep electing these Roger Hunts, Jim Bolins, Phil Jensens, Greenfields and others like them. If there was more of a healthy competitive political system along with a functioning investigative press corps there is no way many of them would ever be elected. I don’t see things changing for quite some time in this state with virtually no organized and united opposition.

  23. jerry 2015-08-24 20:04

    Hunt has always been kind of a shady character. He put up a whole lot of moolah that he did not have to disclose where it came from. Maybe what Hunt really is saying is that he wants to shower with these kids. Dude is a weird duck for sure.

  24. They can't help it 2015-08-24 20:08

    I was just recovering from ‘legitimate rape’ and now this. Maybe they could get Ted Klaudt to come back and do the inspecting!

  25. happy camper 2015-08-24 20:12

    Things will change as the dinosaurs die. Young people in South Dakota are also progressive on these issues. John was saying what I did, it’s not gay, straight, bi, but pan-sexuality, etc. A sophomore in college was telling me about the Gay and Lesbian Community Center, actually that’s the old name I remember from Mankato. I’m just her regular customer but she’s comfortable discussing this in public more power to her. Although we may think we are middle aged progressives we are way behind the times too.

  26. grudznick 2015-08-24 20:16

    Lynn, Lar has given up on the Democrat party and has become an outright Libertarian. I, along with most of his other friends, find that it fits his moods better. Now that his good friend Mr. Swinney has been elected chair of the Libertarian party of Lar’s state, I expect he will become even more surly.

  27. Lynn 2015-08-24 20:20

    Grudz,

    Your absolutely right! Did you and Lar get together for breakfast? Just think if the three of us were to get together to break bread?

  28. larry kurtz 2015-08-24 20:21

    I’m watching the Black Hills being filleted by developers and being told to sober up. How ridiculous is that?

  29. larry kurtz 2015-08-24 20:23

    Lynn is right. Flee now or forever condemn your children to solitary hell.

  30. larry kurtz 2015-08-24 20:26

    The good news is that Mitchell is just another town condemned to being another roadside attraction living at the whims of the James River.

  31. grudznick 2015-08-24 20:27

    Lynn, I have found it is usually best to breakfast with Lar in small groups, more than 2 but less than 6, or else his OIC really rears its ugly maw.

  32. larry kurtz 2015-08-24 20:27

    Roger Hunt is the Mitchell of South Dakota.

  33. grudznick 2015-08-24 20:29

    That \comment seems a bit generous to Mr. Hunt.

  34. larry kurtz 2015-08-24 20:31

    grud is the zell of south dakota.

  35. grudznick 2015-08-24 20:31

    Elkhorn isn’t really much of a peak, Lar. Those Scottish fellows will probably plow the entire thing under.

  36. larry kurtz 2015-08-24 20:35

    my ship is idling in orbit.

  37. grudznick 2015-08-24 20:40

    The Rapture is nigh, eh?

  38. Lynn 2015-08-24 20:41

    Happy,

    I noticed the hateful comments regarding Caitlin Jenner but believe that hatred is more directed at the Kardashians and Caitlin’s association with them profiting off the shallow narcissistic reality show franchise they have than Caitlin’s transition. I feel Caitlin’s own reality show and very public transition has done more harm than good with the Kardashian baggage but that is a completely different discussion.

  39. Owen 2015-08-24 20:45

    No Hunt here Larry. just Tara and Sibby

  40. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-08-24 20:48

    Crossgrain, not that I want to lull students into falsely thinking we’d actually let them rule the schools democratically, but it would be really interesting to hear more of their side of the issue before the Legislature. The Legislature heard some really strong testimony from trans kids last winter, and that testimony appeared to help kill the bills Hunt, Bolin, et al. were trying to pass to undo the SDHSAA transgender participation policy. If those kids have to march up to the Capitol again next winter (and I hate to make them keep coming back to be subjected to Hunt’s bullying, but that’s the price we pay for progress in civil rights), perhaps they should enlist some help from their non-transgender friends.

    Your kids and others seem to put the lie to Chase’s assertion that trans kids will only face more bullying if we let them participate according to their gender identity. Kids are developing empathy in this area faster than adults… and if kids can change, if they can reduce bullying themselves, then Chase’s assertion falls apart, revealing itself as nothing more than his projection of his own prejudice onto others.

  41. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-08-24 20:56

    Joseph—who you callin’ yellow, pardner? <);-{)

  42. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-08-24 21:12

    Roger E: co-ed teams for all sports? Interesting concept! Speech events have long been co-ed (with the strange exception of separate girls’ and boys divisions of extemporaneous speaking from 1953 to 1984); no one freaks out. Why not combine sports? If Hunt, Chase, and friends were really worried about kids getting hurt (those big burly boys “pretending” to be girls and crushing our frail flowers of femininity with their testosterone), they’d be screaming family-values murder about football, which poses far greater risk of injury to the boys playing than any boy would pose to any girl in basketball, volleyball, or track. They’d oppose girls sports in general as hazards to girls, since girls have higher rates of overuse injuries and concussions than boys. Maybe if we’re really worried about student safety, we should stop using kids for gladiatorial entertainment and limit school athletic offerings to lifelong recreational sports, like running, bicycling, golf, tennis, and swimming.

    Of course, these family-values folks probably overlap with the folks crying about Michelle Obama’s push for healthier school lunches. They fret that kids need bigger lunches. But 64.7% of HS football players who suffer heat illness from practice or games are overweight or obese. So the folks opposing healthier lunches are making our boys fat and putting them higher risk of heat stroke and death. Shame!

  43. Deb Geelsdottir 2015-08-24 21:12

    Hahaha! Nice cowboy emoticon Cory.

    Hunt is a pervert. He is truly messed up in the head. What has he accomplished legislatively that he’s known for that is not related to sex? Seriously, that’s all I hear in regard to him. There must be a psychological term for someone obsessed with sex like he is. He’s not just creepy, he’s Klaudt Kreepy.

  44. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-08-24 21:23

    BCB, the people who keep electing Hunt and his ilk are folks who’ve never heard their favored candidate challenged and called to account the way Barry Wick would with his rhetorical question above. Hunt needs to be asked bluntly, “What makes you think you have the right to pull down children’s pants and look at their genitalia?” That is the literal effect of the legislation he is proposing.

    Maybe Hunt is impervious to shame. Maybe the proper route is ridicule. Does Hunt realize how perilously close he is to sounding like Miss Balbricker in Porky’s (sorry, but yes, I know this movie) when she demands a line-up of five naked boys to identify a rule-breaker? Hunt’s proposal is that bad. The Supreme Court says school officials can’t conduct strip searches unless they’ve got pretty good reason to believe that a child is carrying contraband and that said contraband poses a serious danger to students (see Safford Unified School District v. Redding, 2009). These transgender kids aren’t carrying any secrets in their underpants with intent to harm anyone; they just want to play basketball with their own gender. Hunt is essentially ordering a strip search solely for the purpose of inspecting genitalia. That’s got to fail court scrutiny.

  45. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-08-24 21:27

    Mrs. Nelson, I share your distaste for Rep. Hunt’s assertion about the non-coastal nature of South Dakota culture. Is he unaware that people do move here from the coasts, and that he’s basically flipping them and anyone else thinking of moving here from NYC or L.A. the bird? He’s engaged in wishful thinking where “South Dakota” is code for Roger Hunt’s personal Whitopia.

    Happy, Hunt and his fellow dinosaurs won’t retire themselves. We need to retire them. Where’s our asteroid?

  46. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-08-24 21:31

    So let me check: several folks here, including Deb, seem comfortable with looking at Rep. Hunt’s proposal to depants transgender kids and call him a pervert. Does anyone think we take it too far to use that term in reaction to the idea of visually inspecting transgender students to determine their biological sex?

  47. grudznick 2015-08-24 21:35

    I think the phrase “so far out of line you should be slapped” isn’t that far off base. Because I’m pretty sure there’d be some PE teachers getting their chops busted by a lot of pappys for peeking drawers if this were to happen.

    I do so hope Mr. Hunt brings his bills and Mr. Greenfield stands and talks about them.

  48. grudznick 2015-08-24 21:41

    How does the PE teacher know the child is changed-gendered? Would they not have to peek at all children to sort them out into the right classes or teams? I’m telling you, there would be some angry parents at that. If we are going to have the coach peek at one kid then they’d better peek at them all, to make sure there aren’t cheaters.

  49. Sam@ 2015-08-24 21:42

    I thought Roger Hunt was retired. It is time for the voters to put this old goat out to pasture.

  50. Joseph Nelson 2015-08-24 22:28

    I think it is inaccurate to call him a pervert (as you all certainly are using the ” a person whose sexual behavior is considered not normal or acceptable” definition), unless we would say they same for any legislator that would support checking young mens’ nether regions for inguinal hernias (the old turn & cough). I doubt very much that Rep. Hunt’s motives or reasons for wanting genital inspections are sexual. High school athletes are already dropping their trousers for a doctor for the annual, biennial, or triennial sports physical (depending on the school board). Whether that is disgusting or necessary is a another conversation, and the doctors certainly need to know what the biological sex is in order to check certain blocks on the forms…

    Call him ignorant, stupid, a dinosaur, etcetera… but calling him a pervert is simply inaccurate and likening him to Fogle or Wilkinson is misleading and slanderous. He is certainly trying to equate biological sex with gender identity, which is a topic still being debated and ironed out at all levels of government.

    Per your “About Me” section you “…write first and foremost for my South Dakota neighbors and ex-pats who care about them and their home state. I write to provoke those South Dakotans in place and in spirit to ask questions and have conversations about South Dakota and about how to make our state better.”

    So how is calling him a pervert making our state better? Is ridicule the only option? Will it be ridicule that convinces voters to vote for someone else when his term comes up?

  51. Barry G. Wick 2015-08-25 01:44

    Based upon my experience with transgendered persons in the Black Hills tells me that gender is not an issue of plumbing, but an issue of the mind, the brain. The people I met were convincing as women or as men, but their plumbing had nothing to do with their issue…some pre-op…some post-op. Mr. Hunt’s concern with plumbing shows how really off the mark he is and how confused and dangerously unfamiliar with this subject the far right is. Official child molestation to determine what sex the child is, is not far from checking the sex of every child who goes to school. What is to stop the government of South Dakota from doing this once examination of some children is approved?

  52. Susan 2015-08-25 02:55

    First Roger Hunt spent a lot of time trying to control the nether regions of women because women can’t be trusted to take care of their own healthcare. Now Hunt wants to have a looksee at transgender kids. Roger Hunt seems to have a penchant for looking at everyone’s bodies. Is that in his job description? Why doesn’t he or his like minded colleagues look at what is going on at the Pringle FLDS community? Warren Jeffs runs the FLDS from prison and yet no one pays attention to what the men are doing to the women and children there.

  53. Owen 2015-08-25 07:21

    Sorry Joseph but Hunt is a pervert. I don’t think he’s a doctor so poor Comparison

  54. Joseph Nelson 2015-08-25 07:50

    Owen,

    Seeing as how only only a Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Osteopathy, Doctor of Chiropractic, a Physician Assistant or a Nurse Practitioner can conduct or sign off on a sports physical, I would say it is safe to assume that any future state imposed examination of genitalia would also be completed by a Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Osteopathy, Doctor of Chiropractic, a Physician Assistant or a Nurse Practitioner.

    Continuing to call him a pervert is nonsense, as Rep. Hunts words and actions do not meet the definition. I have looked for any utterance or record where he states that he wants to personally inspect genitalia, and have found no such record.

    Is it too much to ask for reasoned debate?

  55. mike from iowa 2015-08-25 08:04

    JN-what is Hunt’s compelling interest in kid’s plumbing? It would appear to be ridiculous and perverted for a grown man to be so concerned about that which he apparently has so little understanding. He,and the rest of his wingnut buds,have practically no interest in seeing these children are properly educated in public schools. Maybe that would change if schools were called PUBiC schools.

  56. happy camper 2015-08-25 08:11

    He’s not a pervert. He’s just an old guy with outdated values lacking understanding of human sexuality probably like most of us. We learned there was gay, straight, and bi and thought we knew it all but complex human sexuality does not fit in to little categories. We’re always trying to do this but the world is a lot more gray.

  57. happy camper 2015-08-25 08:29

    They want things to be the way they remember them and the way they understand. Some day we’ll be dinosaurs too and your grandkids will roll their eyes. College kids would probably laugh at us this very moment. This is an actual comment from John C’s link. You can’t make this stuff up:

    So we have a young man of 15 who has been raised by a father named Ralph and a mother named Bruce, and we wonder why there may be a bit of confusion in his thinking ?
    The same goes for having a Father named Elizabeth and a mother named Annie that might produce the same confusion.
    I still recall protesting to my mother that if she forced me to wear short pants, I’d be labeled a “sissy” !
    Today, some would wear that “handle” with pride.
    Political Correctness is turning our young men into wusses !
    I remember when, around the campfire at Boy Scout Camp , we’d sing “the Happy Wanderer” or “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.
    Today they sing “Kumbaya” or “Puff the Magic Dragon” !

  58. Lynn 2015-08-25 08:48

    The SDHSAA had a good policy already in place. These legislators are going after this for a number of reasons.

    Some are trying to legislate their religious beliefs into public policy and they do a good job of trying to hide it using all kinds of specific technical arguments that could be picked apart.

    Transgender kids and their families are easy targets and generally lack the resources and political power to fight unlike the larger Gay and Lesbian community which just gained major victories. Those social/religious conservatives can use the Transgender kids for fundraising via sensationalizing situations that will most likely never happen and create fear to gain votes and power. Plus it’s a great distraction from solving real issues that in making the hard choices could cost them their elected seats.

    Some of these legislators you have to wonder if they are somehow satisfying some sexual curiosity or attraction by their annual fixation with anything LGBTQ.

    You call, meet with them in an attempt to educate and eliminate fear by showing them that reality is boring and non-threatening in comparison to the sensationalism and they may even agree with you but after your visit they go back to the fear campaign agenda. Your efforts were a waste of time.

  59. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-08-25 09:13

    Easy, Hap—I think you’re over-generalizing on the songs. We can stand to kick some of the machismo out of our culture. Too much bullying, bad behavior, and B.S. comes from the worship of testosterone. “Political correctness” is not sissification; it’s a fake term used by people who can’t stand being asked to treat others with more respect than they are used to according.

    Joseph, even if Rep. Hunt is not doing the looking personally, he wants to use his power as the state to command children to let others look at their genitals. To what end? If he is going to assign biological sex supremacy in determining gender identity, why is the birth certificate not enough for him? If the birth certificate is in error, why not take students and their parents at their word about gender identity? The SDHSAA policy already subjects transgender students to significant scrutiny without subjecting them to a strip search. Why take this extra step?

  60. Barry Smith 2015-08-25 09:40

    Why take this extra step? Cory asks. Maybe because this guy is a culture warrior who thinks his own world view is more important than what is best for the kids. This extra step is nothing more than adding shame and humiliation to the process. Shame and humiliation are the favorite clubs that these folks take into battle.

  61. leslie 2015-08-25 09:43

    happy , what’s your definition of old?

  62. Loren 2015-08-25 09:44

    Roger Hunt may not be a pervert, be he certainly seems to have an unnatural fixation on things of a sexual nature. Reminds me of the old farmers that had pin ups in the barn. Couldn’t have that stuff in the house, you know! Folks would think you were a PERVERT! :-)

  63. Joseph Nelson 2015-08-25 09:47

    Cory,

    All good questions that should be asked of Rep. Hunt, and muchly much better than “What makes you think you have the right to pull down children’s pants and look at their genitalia?”

    I imagine the end he is trying to achieve is a preservation of certain definitions of gender, and he wants to directly tie it to biological sex. I could see this as the legislature adding a “gender” block on the sports physical forms, which the doctor would check after observing the person.

    I think that it is an unnecessary step, but perhaps they are engaging in some sensational politicking to generate buzz on the issue. If the majority of their constituency thinks along the lines that they do (which I have no data on), then they will secure their seat for next term. Even if it goes no where, they can still use it as a buzz worthy campaign point.

    I think that Rep. Hunt is working and operating with a different perspective of what gender is, and is engaged in a battle to defend his point of view, and what I am sure he thinks is the view of his constituents. Perhaps he sees it as either male or female (as opposed to a spectrum), and any confusion is just that, confusion. It was not too long ago that gender dysphoria was known as gender identity disorder; I think he sees it as a disorder still.

  64. happy camper 2015-08-25 10:26

    I’m not saying their perspective isn’t damaging, but they think their world view (quite an exaggeration) is what is best for the kids. They’re overly certain but we see that on the left as well. It’s unfortunate that younger people including Republicans don’t get more involved. Letting the old farts (anybody over 30 if I remember right) make all the decisions is a mistake. There are many electable “Republican Light” folks in the state that would pull the party out of the dark ages. I think Lynn is wrong once again: meeting with “the other side” is not a waste of time. You don’t know what seeds you are setting. People live surprising open lives in South Dakota. We have an older transgender person in our town who seems to get along fine. My rainbow flag is on the front door.

  65. mike from iowa 2015-08-25 10:41

    If it walks like a perv,talks like a perv and quacks like a perv,itsa wingnut pol perv.

  66. Lynn 2015-08-25 10:47

    Happy,

    Wrong again? lol Normally I would try again if the actors were different but meeting with this particular group is a waste of time. You either vote them out which is unlikely here in SD given the present environment or by other legal means.

    That’s great for that older transgender person in your town who seems to get along fine but every situation is different and it can be far more complicated.

  67. Jenny 2015-08-25 10:56

    Back off SD on the GLBT bashing and anti-hate bills or I’ll get my boycott SD petition going again. Remember, Minnesotans love your Black Hills but can’t stand your politics.

  68. Lynn 2015-08-25 11:00

    Happy,

    Many things that many of us take for granted here in SD can be an extra obstacle such as just seeking basic healthcare. Your allergies are bothering you but your new to the clinic and list your prior medical history and what may happen is a PA “outing” and shaming you in the exam room so loud that everyone else patients and staff in the clinic can hear or this sudden parade of other medical staff finding reasons to enter your exam room and check out this transgender person out. That patient is embarrassed and just sinks in her or his chair. All this person wanted was to find relief from the effects of allergies/asthma

    That person is not looking for special treatment just the same quality of treatment, professionalism and privacy anyone else would expect.

    It happens.

  69. leslie 2015-08-25 11:15

    one of the definitions of old is using “lol”

  70. Jenny 2015-08-25 11:16

    I meant anti-gay bills.

  71. Bob Newland 2015-08-25 11:41

    Roger Hunt is a smarmy little tick with disgustingly hairy knuckles and ears.

  72. Roger Cornelius 2015-08-25 12:07

    How does Joseph know for certain that Roger Hunt is not a pervert?
    We didn’t know that Josh Duggar, the Subway guy or numerous religious and political leaders and celebrities were perverts until they were outed publicly.
    I’ll cut Hunt a little slack and say maybe he isn’t a pervert, but his obsession with women and children genitalia reeks of a deviant mind.

  73. Jenny 2015-08-25 12:31

    It really does seem like, contrary to popular belief, it is not homosexual men that are the horniest and nastiest, but the conservative, religious ones. Maybe it is the culture of repressed sexuality, I don’t know.

  74. Joseph Nelson 2015-08-25 13:27

    Roger,

    Without any evidence to show he is a pervert, I refrain from calling him one. I try to follow a principle of thinking the best of people and their intentions, and trying to see things from their perspective, before tossing names around. I see Rep. Hunt operating from a certain set of principles, none of which are perverted, simply out of vogue with modern society. His points of view are certainly in keeping with the era he was raised in. He is choosing to try and preserve those views, rather than adopting more recent views.

    I have looked at his record as far as Bills he has been a part of, but not read any opinion pieces of his. I doubt very much he is obsessed with genitalia or women’s issues, but accept that anything is in the realm of possibility. However, I do not see it as plausible. I fully encourage you (and the rest of the combox) to provide any proof or evidence of his perversion or obsession. Until then, why not adopt a rational tolerance of his view points, disagree with him but not demonize him.

    I mean, isn’t that the scary thing about the uber-Right, that they will not tolerate transgender people, and demonize them?

    Unless this is just a forum for making fun of people we don’t like or disagree with; then I say slander away!

  75. mike from iowa 2015-08-25 13:32

    What are Hunt’s best intentions for kids when he wants them to drop trou so he can peek at their genitals? What earthly benefit do kids get from pervs? He isn’t a doctor. He isn’t trained to check for venereal diseases. Is he an enabler for other pervs?

  76. happy camper 2015-08-25 13:36

    You have no idea how many married men want to have sex with other men. At first I thought they were just closet cases. Sometimes no doubt but many others not so. I know it sounds crazy so I had to ask the guys who partake because I was so curious. The answer I got was they don’t think they are cheating on their wives because they are “just playing around” with other guys. For many their wives no longer want to have sex, or not enough, or they are just very sexual. If you don’t believe me go to Craigslist. There’s a lot of people seeking non-traditional sex which I do think many of these repressed people have within themselves conflicting the religious values they learned as children. They struggle with it, but it comes out. They hate themselves so much for it they are often the most vocal against “deviancy.” Others are extremely comfortable with it, but cheating is cheating in my book unless you have permission and there are quite a few of them too.

  77. Jenny 2015-08-25 14:13

    No, HC, it is not just the gay men that have the affairs. There are plenty of married hetero men and women that can’t stay faithful to their significant other.

    Gay men are at least open about playing the field, contrary to the hypocritical ‘married with children family man’.

  78. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-08-25 14:21

    Joseph, I’d like to think the best of people, too, but Roger Hunt has a long history of peddling the culture wars in South Dakota politics, at the expense of discussion that could focus on real problems and real solutions to benefit all South Dakotans. Seeking to use the power of the state to force children to undress and expose themselves may not satisfy whatever definition we are using here of “pervert,” but it does signal contempt for the dignity of other people, just like Hunt’s support for attempts to take away women’s autonomy over their health care decisions.

    Thinking the best of Mark Chase is difficult when he offers a textbook example of blaming the victim.

  79. happy camper 2015-08-25 14:24

    Jenny that’s not what I said. I said married straight guys cheat with gay men and other married straight men and it’s the repressed religious ones who are often “deviant” but complain about other deviants.

  80. Jenny 2015-08-25 14:25

    I also predict that gay married men will have lower divorce rates than the hetero couples in a few years. Gay men that are getting married today (in MN anyway) are older, professional very beautiful loving couples that are in it for the long run, and are full of gratitude for having fought and won the legal gay marriage battle. They are long past their youth.

  81. Joseph Nelson 2015-08-25 14:37

    Cory,

    I can dig it. I see the Rep. Hunt has been in politics for over 20 years, so I imagine he ha been defending his viewpoints for quite a while.

    I still want to point out that the State already forces children to undress and expose themselves, as part of the sports physical. I do not see this turning into anything more than another box that the doctor checks off on the form as they go about poking and prodding. Whether that is the route Rep. Hunt is suggesting, or if he wants a completely separate naked exam, I have yet to read or see. I imagine it would as simple as “Does the doctor check for inguinal hernia behind the testicles? If yes, check “male” for gender”. The doctor would not even have to ask any additional questions of the student, or modify the exam; they are simply checking one more box. If this is the way it will be done, I do not see it as demeaning or degrading the dignity of the student anymore than they already have been.

    Now, whether Rep. Hunt has contempt for the dignity of women and children? I am not as knowledgeable as you all in regards to all the red and yellow flags that flag him as such, but I do not see this as a yellow flag for contempt of dignity (unless he really wants a completely separate exam, which would be unnecessary).

  82. Roger Cornelius 2015-08-25 16:07

    Joseph, this is a test to see if you are true to your word.
    Since you have taken the high road and looking for good in politicians, I’d be interested to see your response to each of the 12 lame duck accomplishments by President Obama in the thread above.
    Remember, you have to be positive and represent the state.

  83. Eve Fisher 2015-08-25 16:56

    I worked at medical genetics at Emory University years ago, and one of my jobs was doing genetic testing to determine sex – guess what, about 1 in 100 times, even the doctor can’t tell what sex the baby is. Going by testicles doesn’t work, going by clitoris/penis doesn’t work – it’s genetics. So checking for testicles won’t do it. Looking at genitilia won’t do it. Get a grip – there is such a thing as intersex, and sometimes Nature makes mistakes.

  84. Randy E. Amundson 2015-08-25 19:03

    I believe a birth certificate is enough to prove what gender someone is. If you don’t want young athletes who identify as a female but are biologically a male to participate on the girl’s basketball or volley ball teams then have them produce a birth certificate. To visually inspect their genitalia no doubt would be done by a physician, and could be done by their personal family physician for purposes of the physical. Even though the transgender athlete who identifies as a female doesn’t mean that their male body parts don’t need to be checked for rupture or hernia or other abnormalities that could be harmful to the athlete’s health. Roger Hunt is a despicable person. Not everyone identifies with his homophobic lifestyle, and we can thank God for that. I certainly thank my maker that I do not suffer from the same delusions of superiority that he does. They should examine him from the shoulders up prior to next election and make certain that the results are published in the newspaper in his district. People need to have his sanity validated.

  85. mike from iowa 2015-08-25 20:06

    So which birth certificate is acceptable to Dakota wingnuts? The long form,the short form or one that birther sites cook up to say what they want said. Will the student need a note from mom,their pastor and an affidavit from a couple of crows that know them personally?

    Maybe wingnuts will shut down schools in a fit of pique.

  86. Deb Geelsdottir 2015-08-25 22:34

    I call Hunt a pervert because I know what he has done publicly and I have seen him in action. His obsession with the sexuality and sexual behavior of those who are not conservative, straight, white males is abnormal, to say the least, and perverted, to say more.

    There is a huge difference between a high school sports physical and an inspection to determine biological gender. Few things can be more traumatizing. The level of humiliation and shame is not a part of a routine athletic physical. In the gender inspection, a very small number of students are singled out for special treatment and their classmates will be well aware of what’s going on.

    When the MSHL’s (MN State High School League) inclusive transgender rule was being considered, those opposed ran a full page ad in the Strib, the statewide paper. It showed a girl softball player, in sports uniform, sitting on the bench, head hanging. The caption said that she had lost her spot on the team to a transgender, biologically male student. In the years after the MSHL adopted that rule, the scenario in the ad has never happened. That’s according to the MSHL and the Strib.

    Hunt uses innocent children, already facing major struggles due to the social milieu people like Hunt nurture, to further his political agenda and fundraising goals. To me that is another form of pervsion. At the least it is unbelievably cruel and shameful. Transgender children have a very high rate of suicide.

  87. grudznick 2015-08-25 23:38

    It’s terrible if that girl lost her team spot to a stronger, faster, better base stealing and higher OPS hitter because that fellow was really a drag queen. But if she did not, then that is good. Ms. Geelsdottir is right about Mr. Hunt in many ways. I think Mr. Hunt is going to have a lot of answering to when all the legislatures get back together. And I hope he stops using that duck grease in his hair.

  88. leslie 2015-08-25 23:53

    duck grudz

  89. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-08-26 20:22

    Joseph, Roger Hunt has been a prime mover behind abortion restrictions, which the right wing brings not in real love of babies but in contempt of women for having sex of which the patriarchy does not approve.

    Roger Hunt has been presented with the science about gender dysphoria. Hunt rejects that science. I’m not convinced my rational questions alone will persuade him away from his error. “Making South Dakota better” (thank you for reminding me of my mission, Joseph) may require provoking him and the electorate with the same sort of sensationalism he may be using against us. I am open to a debate about the morality and the practicality of such a move… but I am already biased toward arguing that we would do less harm than Hunt does in using transgender children as the latest whipping boys in his misguided culture war.

    Deb’s summary of the case against his “visual inspections” supports my “bias” pretty well. Hunt isn’t asking for a physical exam for the sake of the child’s health and safety. Hunt is asking for an invasion of privacy that likely will be used against the child, to challenge that child’s gender identification and do more active harm to that child’s well-being.

  90. Bill 2015-08-27 11:40

    Anything even remotely like this happen to one of my kids and every single person involved…from the school employee who did it, to every school administrator at the school and district, all the way up the chain to the legislator (like this pedophile Hunt) who proposed it in the first place….would be in court the next day.

    Damn good thing I don’t live in South Dakota.

  91. Martinator 2015-08-27 12:30

    Rep. Roger Hunt is right, gender is determined at conception.

    But not in the way he thinks it is.

    Three genetic factors have to align. Physiology, gender preference, and gender identity are three independent genetic factors that line up most of the time. When they don’t…

    “DR. JOSHUA SAFER, Boston University: In most people, chromosomes, body parts, gender identity align. So, somebody with a male chromosome, somebody with male body parts is going to have male gender identity. That is the usual circumstance.

    All of these are independently controlled biologically, and therefore it is no surprise that, in a given subset of the population, one part is not aligned, that whatever genes are controlling that happen to be different for that individual, and that’s what’s happening with transgender individuals.”

    Science.

    http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/biology-gender-identity-children/

  92. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-08-31 18:14

    Yet HuffPo doesn’t link to my original, authentic, local commentary. Darned Coastal journalists, ignoring our local culture! :-D

  93. bearcreekbat 2015-08-31 18:35

    That failure by HuffPo is unfortunate, but perhaps they will wise up. I have already sent Nick Visser an email alerting him to your efforts. I tried blind cc-ing you but the mailman said it didn’t go through. Here is what I wrote to Nick:

    Hi Nick,

    Thanks for the great article exposing the silliness of SD legislator Roger Hunt’s demand to inspect children’s genitals. SD blogger Cory Heidelburger first brought this story to light in his great Dakota Free Press blog:

    https://dakotafreepress.com/2015/08/24/rep-hunt-wants-to-look-at-transgender-kids-genitalia

    Check Cory’s blog out as it has well researched and interesting stories exposing the craziness of SD’s own right wing pols.

    bcb

  94. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-08-31 19:40

    BCB! You’re very kind. I should promote you to my marketing department and give you a 25% raise. :-)

  95. Jodi Lennox 2015-11-11 22:16

    I am a trans women from Canada I have suffered long enough I don’t some creepy government offical to inspect the genitals on my body right now I have genitals on my body I feel they do not belong to me. I wake up in the morning crying over the genitals on my body and go to bed crying I feel like I was raped at birth, what is needed is fast and better guidelines for Sexual reassignment surgey

  96. Linda 2016-01-11 20:51

    And just who elected this idiot? Why, it was the people of South Dakota! What does that tell you?

  97. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-01-11 21:02

    It wasn’t all of us, Linda, just the people of District 25… where Democrats didn’t manage to run an opponent next time… oops, sorry!

  98. sharon 2016-01-14 16:55

    what an ass!!! always has been always will be, yuk, yuk, yuk, get rid of him

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