When we get to Pierre, maybe we’ll call ourselves the Anti-Ridiculousness Caucus.
For Immediate Release:
South Dakota Legislative Candidates Call for Veto of Transgender Bathroom Bill
An Open Letter to Governor Dennis Daugaard and All South Dakota Voters
Wednesday, February 17, 2016The South Dakota Legislature’s approval of House Bill 1008, an ill-informed state mandate forcing schools to adopt an illegal and discriminatory policy toward transgender students’ use of school bathrooms and locker rooms, is one reason we are running to replace our out-of-touch Legislative incumbents.
We cannot support passing bills to single out and bully transgender students.
We cannot support passing bills that take away local schools’ ability to decide what’s best for their students.We cannot support passing bills at the behest of out-of-state lawyers eager to make South Dakota a guinea pig for their pet culture-war projects while putting school districts at risk of costly lawsuits.
We cannot support passing bills that violate federal law and put South Dakota at risk of losing over $200 million in federal education funds, especially at a time when our Legislature can’t work up the courage to pass an additional $80 million to raise teacher pay.
We cannot support passing bills that draw national ridicule, that make South Dakotans look uninformed and prejudiced, and that run the risk of a boycott that could depress our tourism economy and our sales tax revenues.
We cannot support House Bill 1008. We hope Governor Dennis Daugaard will veto House Bill 1008. And we ask our fellow South Dakotans to reject House Bill 1008 and the legislators who have voted for it.
Respectfully,
- Mark Winegar—Candidate for District 17 House
- Ellee Spawn—Candidate for District 13 House
- Shane Merrill—Candidate for District 17 Senate
- Ethan Marsland—Candidate for District 33 House
- Cory Allen Heidelberger—Candidate for District 3 Senate
- Michael Hanson—Candidate for District 35 House
- Tom Cool—Candidate for District 11 Senate
[press release, 2016.02.17]
I wonder what the legislative penalty is for going into the prohibited bathroom? If school officials catch a trans youngster using the prohibited potty, do these legislators intend that the child be arrested and prosecuted as a juvenile delinquent or suspended from school?
And what is the current punishment for an adult who uses the wrong toilet – is he or she guilty of a crime or subject to prosecution?
And what if the violator just uses the sink to wash his or her hands when no one else is in the rest room? Do our law makers intend to make mere entry by a child into the prohibited restroom a crime?
There has always been an anti-ridiculousness caucus to counterbalance a large ridiculousness caucus. Anti-ridiculousness is less entertaining at a time when the roman coliseum electorate demands entertainment. Find a way to make anti-ridiculousness entertaining and you will win the crowd. Give them something they have never seen before.
I am just the opposite of what this writer is saying. I wouldn’t boycott SD, I want to move there. A state where Republicans reign and still try attempt to take a stand against the lunacy of liberal left. There can’t be a better State than one that says go to the bathroom in the room that identifies with your God-given parts and realizes that coal fired power plants are necessary for the middleclass to stay financially viable! God Bless South Dakota!!
Rorschach,
Would that be something like “Truth in Advertising”?
*Recalls the “Where’s the Beef” advertisement from some years ago*……
Do what God says, pee where the Legislature tells you, and burn fossil fuels as if there’s no tomorrow—Stu, yours is a nasty, poor, and brutish vision of America. Come and visit if you like (and spend all the money you can! we need the sales tax!), but know that I’ll do my darnedest to keep you and your “values” from winning any more elections.
Well, at least we know now that Grandpa Cheapskate is giving this bill due diligence:
So the best way to remain objective is not to listen and hear both sides? Anybody checked for lead in the Pierre water system lately?
Update, Cross! Daugaard will meet with transgender folks, as arranged by Center for Equality!
http://kelo.com/news/articles/2016/feb/17/daugaard-declines-meeting-with-transgendered-south-dakotans/
What is he going to meet with all 4 South Dakota transgenders??? I like the article trying to claim all the revenue that South Dakota will loose because of a possible tourism boycott. What a hoot, get over yourselves!!
Stu, you’re not helping your situation. More than four have stepped forward in committee and the press (increasing their risk of harassment) just to protest this bill. The world is not as simple as you think. The people who different from you are not so insignificant a portion of the population that you can ignore or ridicule them.
And even if there were only one transgender South Dakotan, bullying and marginalizing that one person would still not be right.
Better than having Daugaard attempt to find and meet with the one sane wingnut in South Dakota,
I don’t get this one. Nothing wrong by me is someone is transgender. However, if you have a penis use the men’s bathroom, if you have a vagina use the girl’s. I fail to see how there is any discrimination in that.
@Dave L. — Or, alternately, everybody can stop obsessing about everybody else’s privates and worry about their own selves. If there’s really a problem—and remember, nobody presented any evidence of any problem that this bigoted bill is “solving”—then put up stalls in the bathrooms and presto! everybody has privacy. Problem solved.
But it’s so much easier and lazier to focus on “culture war” issues than to actually solve problems and pass a budget. No, let the creepy old men of the legislature obsess about little girls’ private parts (nothing weird there, nosirree!), and then shoehorn an ALEC wishlist into a hoghouse bill right before skipping town, per usual.
As Cory said, it sure would be nice to have a legislature that tried to solve problems, not cause them.
P.S. Stumcfar above is just trolling, and not very well. Don’t feed him. Or do. Your choice, really. If you do, just know that he desperately craves your attention.
A tourism boycott does not just include tourist coming to look at Mt. Rushmore, it is more about corporations, national organizations, etc. scheduling meetings in South Dakota.
A few years ago when Arizona passed an equally offensive discrimination bill conventions pulled out of Phoenix within a week and Arizona had to reconsider. The economic impact to major Arizona was instant and severe.
Let’s just pee. Let’s just get dressed, play ball, then hit the showers and go home… or, as almost all the kids do now anyway, go home and hit the showers. The Legislature is just looking for trouble, and making plenty of it, imperiling $205 million in federal education funding just to scratch the itch of their bathroom panic, which school districts and states with real transgender accommodation policies have found is baseless:
http://mediamatters.org/research/2014/03/20/15-experts-debunk-right-wing-transgender-bathro/198533
The predators, the assaults, the peril to youthful innocence are all in the GOP majority’s heads. The solutions to real problems are evidently not.
Mr. C has a point there. Maybe if this bill is signed the legislatures will have to cut more of the budget and this would hurt our common goals of getting good teachers raises because the sales taxes would get smaller.
Maybe that could be an excuse for the Governor to veto it without admitting that some of his legislatures are insaner than most.
every thing is about saving face
Maybe there are darker forces at work here than you can understand, Ms. leslie, and this is part of the robber barons’ heinous plans.
I bet you the Governor has his puppet masters behind every action the legislatures take. I’m just sayin…
Ed Randazzo, who works for Family Heritage Alliance political organization in Rapid City, in gallery as Senate nears transgender debate.
Bob Mercer @pierremercer
#occupyupotty
This bill has probably done what was intended whether or not it passes.
What have we heard about Gear Up, EB 5 lawsuits, criminal activity in Gants SOS office for starters, since session started?
Chirp, chirp, chirp……..
This bill just makes me mad. Why does SD need to be known as the laughing stock of the USA. Last in teacher pay, but first to submit a transgender bill on where they are allowed to go to the bathroom. Bill 1008 floats through the legislature, while we cannot even bring a vote on HB1182 until it has been delayed until the last minute. Bill 1008 will certainly cause a lawsuit, and cost the state a lot of money to defend. The money it will cost the state to defend 1008 in court could be better spent towards teacher pay, but not in SD. Damnit, we have morals here in the great state of SD.
Thanks to the legislative candidates who signed the letter!!
JoeK- you can’t shame wingnuts. They have no shame. No conscience either,unless you are a cluster of cells months away from birth.
“The money it will cost the state to defend 1008 in court could be better spent towards teacher pay”
The money being spent on social engineering can be best spent on “real” teachers.
http://sibbyonline.blogs.com/sibbyonline/2016/02/public-schools-using-transgender-agenda-to-promote-child-abuse-funding-by-taxpayers-money.html
So the gov. has decided to toss his objectivity by the wayside and meet with some transgender folks. I guess I should be happy (I will secretly believe it was because of my post) – but why do I get the feeling that this is only for show? Meh. One can hope, I guess. Those folks he’s meeting with will be far more persuasive than I’ll ever be.
Call me what you will, ignore me if you want, but the truth of the matter is that once again a very small minority is causing problems and wanting special rights. The country is getting tired of added expenses and lawsuits caused by minorities who have issues and abnormal lifestyles. Thank goodness there are still places like South Dakota that stand up for normalcy, decency and common sense. I realize it makes a few of you feel good to come on here and support each other and make you feel like you are in a majority. You are wrong, you are a small minority, much like the Democratic Party in South Dakota.
Discriminating against transgenders is unconstitutional. Do you understand what that means,Stu? Transgendered people were made that way by your imaginary lord and saviour. Do you understand that,Stu? Phoney kristians who claim to be doing their imaginary god’s work on earth are not real kristians,according to their imaginary god’s words as expressed in the bible.
I understand that. God made them with biological parts that differentiate the sexes. Do you understand that???
What could stumcfar stand for? I’m guessing Sibby Takes U Moranic Christians For A Ride.
Your imaginary god is not infallible-see Jerry Fatwell,Pat (1st born conceived out of wedlock) Robertson,Jim and Tamiflu Bakker, Joel ( I wear too much makeup) Osteen,etc. You notice many babies are born with serious defects.don’t you?
Mike, have you ever heard of repentance and forgiveness? Can that happen to the spiritual rebels?
Yeah,Sibby,I has heard of it. It is standard wingnut protocol when they get caught shagging someone of either sex that is not their spouse or child. It is their “get out of jail free card” used on their constituents.
What does the Bible say about charging interest? about wearing synthetic cloth? or about working with those who have leprosy? If were going to enact Biblical arguments into this, then please lets enact the entire Gospel and not pick and chose references from the old testament.
Does the whole love your neighbor as you love yourself come into play? Is this not the greatest of the commandments as written by Paul in Romans 13?
Sibbinator, welcome back, just remember you need to behave on here. :)
Why is Sibby on DFP promoting his own irrelevant blog?
After less than a week back on DFP he has already gone off the deep end.
Hi Everyone, thought you’d like to hear the latest on the SD boycott. http://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2016/02/17/transgender-bill-critics-threaten-tourism-boycott/80494926/
Yes, GOP, your hate bill has made national news and there ARE people thinking otherwise about vacationing in SD.
On the SD tourism website the other day I saw one of the LGBT supporters write in the comment section: South Dakota – where the buffalo roam free but where you have to bring your papers to pee.
Yep, SD the joke of the nation as usual.
Madman, as long as my neighbor pees in the bathroom that corresponds with his biological parts and not where his mental disorder leads him, we will be fine.
Jenny, you are silly. Because one of a very small minority writes a joke, you think SD is the laughing stock of the nation. Nice try.
With a job opportunity looming in SD, I am telling you, besides pheasants, one of the biggest selling points of your state is the GOP common sense leadership and believe me that is more attractive to many in the nation than a minority wanting to pee where they don’t belong!
I don’t live in SD and you couldn’t pay me enough to go back there to live. I wouldn’t be happy there.
SD IS, a lot of times, the laughing stock of the nation, one of the reasons is b/c it ranks last in so many areas.
What does stumcfar stand for by the way, may I ask?
By the way, LGBT supporters are not a small minority. There are millions that support LGBT rights.
Based on the latest comments to this thread, it is looking more and more like the true hate filled discriminatory bigots have targeted South Dakotans.
“just remember you need to behave on here”
Jenny,
So you think I might get kicked out of the liberals’ bathroom again?
With the way the law is written in a school, would I be able to take my young children to bathroom if they are of the opposite sex? I would have to say no, but then again it does say student bathroom so will schools need to also have separate adult bathrooms? If so it could really make going to a basketball game a lot of fun when your waiting in line to use the one bathroom the faculty use.
Stumcfar,
If a transgender man in a business suit walks into the bathroom with you and heads to a private stall , you wouldn’t even notice. If a transgender woman bellies up next to you at the urinal and hikes up her skirt to take a leak, you’re gonna do a double-take, and thereby violate the cardinal rule of the mens room: eyes forward, always.
“Yep, SD the joke of the nation as usual.”
EB5/MCEC/deaths/arson/theft of stateproperty/fraud on rounds/daugaard/jackley’s watch, with no official response or remedy.
“one of the biggest selling points of your state is the GOP common sense leadership”-Stumcfar
new here stum??
Steve, does behaving mean that I have to only post what you want to hear and not have a dissenting opinion??
crossgrain, I am confused. In your mind is a transgender man really a woman and a transgender woman really a man??? What a weird and wacked out world we live in. Stay strong SD, don’t knuckle to pressure from a small minority.
stumcar meet sibby. you two will be very dappy together
Jenny, the liberal media will never publish a story about people that will decide to visit SD because of this law. They only publish the doom-and-gloom impacts on tourism.
Stumcfar – It’s apparent you’re confused. A transgender man IS a man, and a transgender woman IS a woman. If you want to randomly walk up to men and grope around to see if they’re more or less endowed the same as you, or peek up womens skirts to see if there’s any spare equipment dangling about, go right ahead (please post videos).
I, on the other hand, will take people at their word. It’s common decency, and I won’t get punched in the face as much.
Jeff you want the numbers then research the tax revenue made during this year’s tourist season. Cross that tax revenue for the past ten years (remember to use 2016 money for your conversion) and you can draw your argument there if tourist are spending as much, the same, or less money.
I look forward to reading your results.
Sibby, if you weren’t so obsessed with your new world order theory and bible preaching you would be a lot more tolerable and not a bad debater.
Madman, you’re talking after-the-fact? One year results aren’t enough, let’s check back 10 years from now to compare numbers. Doom-and-gloom needs to be measured over time. But if I take all my advice from this blog, it won’t exist in 10 years because Cory will be the Governor.
Jeff if this law goes into affect you can compile those numbers for one year to compare it to tax trend of the last ten years from 2005-2015. This amount of years will lessen the impact of one specific event that could have impacted tourism in one year. You take the average of those ten years from 2005-2015 and compare it to 2016, but you have to convert all money (each year) from 2005-2015 into 2016 dollars. You then add all of those numbers together and divide by ten. Cross check with the total of 2016 and you will see if taxes collected during the tourism season is average, better, or less.
It’s basic economics to see the short term impact from an event. You can not move forward ten years and collect data for a short term study on taxation to see the impact on one specific year, that would be a long term study and most of your data would be irrelevant.
Crossgrain, a man has man parts and a woman has woman parts. I guess in your world there is no gender. If a little boy wants to pee on a fire hydrant and bark like a dog, do you let him go ahead believing he is a dog or do you get him help?
Please people, get over yourselves. You really think that tourism dollars lost because of a law such as this would be noticeable?? That is silly talk. Lets see I want my family to see Mount Rushmore, but I don’t think we are going to take in that beautiful landmark because SD doesn’t let men pee in women’s bathrooms. It makes me laugh out loud thinking how silly that sounds!!
Millions of people already boycott South Dakota because the state is ruled by white christianic extremists and an out of control law enforcement industry. The governor is meeting with a group threatening an even larger boycott effort over this latest boner pulled by a nutball legislature.
My source in the governor’s office says Daugaard will veto.
Guess what Larry. I know about a million and half people visit SD each year because of the white christianic extremists, so there is a net gain of a half million. Two can play that silly game!
Killing a record number of bikers and an endemic culture of corruption are South Dakota’s sources of revenue.
http://southdakotaprogressive.blogspot.com/2015/08/ecocides-best-hits-death-and-taxes.html
stum, those folks are just on their way to Yellowstone. damn environmentalists!:)
Stu – people may not really care about transgenders unless they know one or have one in the family… but rest assured people do care about discrimination. This is precisely why those states that attempted to pass anti-gay discriminatory bills disguised as “freedom of religion” laws were forced to backpedal as conventions and tourism dollars started drying up immediately.
That being said, we shouldn’t care about tourism dollars. We should care about doing what is right. It isn’t your place nor mind to judge what someone else does with his or her body and since I’m assuming you aren’t a physician or a psychologist you likely have no idea what is going on with someone other than yourself. Thus if someone has lived their entire live as a woman but biologically is a man, and if that person is sexually attracted to other men you feel it makes more sense for them to use a men’s restroom as opposed to a woman’s restroom?
Doesn’t that seem odd to you? So if a transgender person goes to a public restroom the day before a gender-reassignment surgery you would expect them to use one bathroom, but the day after that surgery you would expect them to use the opposite bathroom. Why does one’s “parts” have more control over which door they choose than one’s mind?
Are transgenders abnormal? I suppose they do meet the definition of abnormal. Are they a small minority? Yes – very much so. However we don’t discriminate against a group of people just because they aren’t part of the majority. If we did, it would mean we would need to discriminate against Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, Jews, Muslims, Homosexuals, Democrats, people who dislike ice cream, and anyone with green eyes.
Is that really the world you want to live in? Be careful… chances are you could be in a minority group one day, and there may be no-one left to help project your rights.
Stumcfar-
Sounds like you’ll be a perfect fit for South Dakota. Just don’t forget to bring your white sheet robe along.
Stumcfar – Don’t confuse sex with gender. They’re different things. Biological sex is generally about what’s between your legs. Gender is generally about what’s between your ears. In my world there is certainly gender, but I don’t go around telling other people what theirs happens to be. Gender can be man, woman, or anything inbetween – it’s not an easy binary configuration. Human biology and society are far to complex for such a simple black-or-white ONLY approach. Body parts have no bearing on gender, just like they have no bearing on whether you’re a Christian or atheist, a conservative or a liberal, a bigoted jackass or a compassionate person – or any of the infinite places between any of those things.
I take offense to the idea that these people need “help” beyond the respect and acceptance we accord all human beings. They’re not sick, they’re just people (not dogs) – regular, normal, functioning people. They live, love, laugh, and go to the bathroom like everyone else.
I’m looking for the person to cast first stones. Stu, Sib?
There’s a song. They’ll know we are Chistians by our love.
Obviously few Christians exist in SD.
I’d also add, we know the genitalia of the folks on death row. Obviously what’s between their ears has more value.
Gotta love liberals. Throwing out the race card when race has never been mentioned. Crossgrain, that is the problem today. Everything is acceptable. There is no normal. Do you realize how crazy our society has become and how much crazier it is going to be when there are no norms to hold it together. You want to say the brain is wired differently, but I throw out a scenario of a different wired brain and you scoff it off. I just hope SD stays conservative and doesn’t allow the crazies of the world to overtake it!
White South Dakotans are crazy by design playing the race card for well over a century.
The Klan wasn’t just about hating blacks. They didn’t much care for Catholics and Jews,either, among other groups.
Hating American Indians is the white christianic South Dakota way.
It is nice you liberals always have a crutch. Instead of the possibility of being wrong, blame someone else or insult someone else. The liberal mantra I guess!
South Dakota: Land of Infinite Villainy.
If a transgendered person gets convicted of a crime, which prison do they send that person to? Lets just do it the same way.
The Blindman
“I, on the other hand, will take people at their word.”
That is how politicians get away with deception.
“Don’t confuse sex with gender. They’re different things. Biological sex is generally about what’s between your legs. Gender is generally about what’s between your ears.”
You are confused. What’s between you legs tells you what gender you are. What social engineers plant in your head tells you something different. Don’t take people at their word.
I have two degrees in social engineering.
Stumcfar – why throw shade? There are plenty of “normal” things in the world. It’s normal to want to be happy. It’s normal to relate to our fellow humans. It’s normal to use whatever toilet you think you should be using. I scoff at your idea of “brain wiring” because people are not dogs no matter how they’re wired. Transgender people are still people, and “wiring” differs between all people. Please demonstrate how transgender people fail to function as human beings. Please demonstrate how transgender people infringe on your rights.
Steve Sibson – if we don’t take others at their word concerning their gender, are we to expect you to be standing outside the mens room demanding our birth certificates? Or perhaps an ‘alternate form of ID’ involving uncomfortable eye-contact and a long rubber glove?
We always have punchlines for our jokes,too. Especially with wingnuts running around.
What about Hermaphrodites,Stum? Born with both sets of genutals. OMG,your head will ‘splode just like Sibby’s.
Bill Dithmer “Blindmand”
” If a transgendered person gets convicted of a crime, which prison do they send that person to? Lets just do it the same way.”
That is pretty scary! The Department of Corrections already testified against the religious freedom bill since it would require them to use the sex designation on the birth certificate to place Intersex and transgender prisoners which places them and their staff in danger. Presently they place them as to how they identify themselves.
HB 1209 is another bill that has not been mentioned much yet is extremely threatening. It is strictly uses the sex designation on the birth certificate for all state documents. Think of how our drivers license is used every day and you have a Transgender person totally presenting themselves opposite of what their sex designation indicates. Store clerks, bank tellers, police officers or whomever checks that id might be shocked or say or do things that could have negative consequences on that transgender person. This person is simply trying to blend in and go about life.
Let’s say there was a transgender person who finished all their surgeries so they are physically the gender they identify with. If they did not get the birth certificate change their sex designation would either revert back to their prior sex if they moved back to South Dakota or it would remain showing the sex they do not identify with. If they were to be incarcerated it would be a nightmare!
It is likely that we all have encountered transgender people in both men’s and women’s bathrooms and never even knew it. I don’t think the transgender flash their junk in public restrooms and if they do it is a rarity.
The really stupid part of this whole discussion is that the right wing feels this is somehow an epidemic among young people
I know several transgender people and you would never know it by looking at them.
This bill is about discrimination and if the state can discriminate against school age children they can discriminate against anyone by using this bill.
Stu: “It is nice you liberals always have a crutch. Instead of the possibility of being wrong, blame someone else or insult someone else. The liberal mantra I guess!”
So says the person who used their first post to insult the liberal left.
Welcome to South Dakota Stu… your hypocrisy suggests you would be well suited for public office!
If any or all of these Transgender laws are signed into law there will be more suicides here in the state. Some we will know why and others we will not in which that person masked or didn’t dare tell anyone. More pain, more depression which leads to unhealthy consequences in their lives.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/and-then-they-came-for-tr_b_9258678.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000050
For newcomers to this blog I am a progressive and not a liberal.
Liberals are conservatives with a capital D.
Stu: “God made them with biological parts…”
If we accept that statement as (a) true and (b) normative, then what happens when we note that God also made their brains, which apparently don’t function in synch with their bodies?
That few are interested in the causes of gender dysphoria and the many want to treat the symptoms is just more evidence of red state collapse.
I believe the possible causes were briefly touched upon during testimony for HB 1209.
The proponents reasoning in regards to a source document and then going into national security reasons totally lost me. Foreign terrorists sneaking into the country under the cover as transgendered operatives?
That young, pretty Dr. Boz is experimenting with a new drug that she injects into people to cure their drug use. It is called Vivolvitrol and she is selling it on the reservations. It sounds like a real cure-all and is being considered to treat other mental conditions. I fear that there are some who think this transgenderism should be treated in the brain instead of in the bottom might try the Vivolvitrol on some unsuspecting transgendered kids, or get them hooked on something to get a prescription for the Vivolvitrol.
As Roger suggests, we may not notice. I’m too busy taking care of my own business to butt into anyone else’s in the can.