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Senate Ed Rejects Restrictions on SDHSAA Transgender Policy; Smokeout and Veto Override on Deck?

In another victory for keeping the Legislature’s nose out of school locker rooms and bathrooms, Senate Education this morning quashed House Bill 1112, Rep. Roger Hunt’s latest effort to push his anti-transgender agenda by beating up on the South Dakota High School Activities Association. HB 1112 sought to void the SDHSAA’s transgender policy and require Legislative approval for any future transgender policy. Sen. Brock Greenfield reportedly raised his concerns about the crushing blows that transgender MMA fighter Fallon Fox can deliver. I’m waiting for the hearing audio from SDPB to transcribe and dissect those scare tactics and to find out from SDHSAA which school districts are petitioning to add cage fighting to the list of sanctioned high school sports.

Senate Education took a cue from the Governor’s veto of HB 1008 and deferred HB 1112 to the 41st day (i.e., killed it) on a 5–2 vote. Senators Greenfield and Bruce Rampelberg voted to keep the fight going; Senator R. Blake Curd, who cosponsored the bill, joined Republicans Deb Soholt and Alan Solano and Democrats Bernie Hunhoff and Jason Frerichs in booting the bill.

So, thank Gaia, South Dakota’s actually knocked down the three big bigotry bills of this session: in addition to the committee snuffing of HB 1112 and the veto of HB 1008, we got Rep. Rev Scott Craig to withdraw HB 1107, his discrimination disguised as religious freedom bill.

But wait: my sources tell me transphobics in the Senate may rally for a smokeout, a vote by one third of the chamber to force a committee to send a defeated bill to the floor for debate. Smoking out HB 1112 will require 12 Senators; smoker-outers could pick from among the 20 Senators who voted for HB 1008…

…speaking of which, multiple sources tell me that Rep. Fred Deutsch is pushing for House members to vote to override the Governor’s veto of HB 1008 this afternoon. Consideration of the veto is item #1 on this afternoon’s House calendar (session convenes at 1 p.m. Central). This push appears to run counter to a statement attributed to Rep. Deutsch on Tuesday evening, in which Rep. Deutsch reportedly said he would encourage colleagues to concur with the veto, since “Further focus on this issue will detract from the other significant accomplishments of the legislature this session.”

Sensibility is evidently fleeting for some Republicans. Buckle up for a bumpy afternoon in Pierre!

Update 14:29 CST: The House did little but consider the Governor’s veto of HB 1008. Rep. Deutsch told his colleagues they did not have the votes to override the veto in the Senate, so he asked his colleagues to give his brainchild a dignified death in the House and help him come up with a better bill for next Session. Eighteen of his colleagues joined him in flipping their yeas to nays to sustain the veto:

Roll call, HB 1008 veto override (required 2/3 vote, failed), South Dakota House of Representatives, 2016.03.03.
Roll call, HB 1008 veto override (required 2/3 vote, failed), South Dakota House of Representatives, 2016.03.03.
House members who voted  YEA on HB 1008 on first House passage, then flipped to NAY on veto override vote.
House members who voted YEA on HB 1008 on first House passage, then flipped to NAY on veto override vote.

19 Comments

  1. Jenny 2016-03-03 10:42

    I think these genital obsessed creepy old farts need more sex or something.

  2. Jenny 2016-03-03 10:44

    Harassing transgender students is just plain creepy and probably qualifies as sexual harassment. Back off SD GOP ,you’re not going to win this one.

  3. Jenny 2016-03-03 10:46

    Brock must have sexual fantasies of Fallon Fox in his bedroom.

  4. larry kurtz 2016-03-03 10:47

    South Dakota: Land of Infinite Voyeurism.

  5. Stumcfar 2016-03-03 10:49

    Special rights, the liberal mantra!!

  6. Jenny 2016-03-03 10:54

    No, it’s just equal rights, Stump. Not special rights.

  7. mike from iowa 2016-03-03 11:51

    The will of the people is whatever a handful of dingbat wingnuts decide among themselves.

  8. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-03-03 11:52

    Special rights? Going pee, suiting up for a basketball game, participating in high school activities, showering… I’m still not finding the “special rights” Stu shouts about. “Special rights!” sounds more like Stu’s conservative-Trump-anger mantra.

  9. Steve 2016-03-03 11:54

    Where is the conservative outcry to keep government out of school policy making? Where is the hue and cry of conservatives claiming that the government should be kept out of bath or bed or for that matter any school or house rooms? Right to privacy remember? Meandering conservatism a/k/a convenient conservatism is the genesis of HB 1008.

  10. Madman 2016-03-03 12:03

    Welcome to America Stu, land of the free, home of the brave. Didn’t we fight a war with Britain over the feelings that we didn’t have the same rights as everyone else?

  11. Jenny 2016-03-03 13:44

    They’re at it again. They just can’t quit harassing transgenders
    Rep Steve Haugaard calls transgenders choose to live this life and that it’s not embedded in their DNA and that those that support transgenders have “A misplaced sense of compassion and that we’re feeding into the fire of confusion.” Oh good lord, these people! Cory, you have to get on this. House of Rep is talking live right now.

  12. larry kurtz 2016-03-03 13:51

    Dana Ferguson just tweeted that Governor Daugaard’s veto has been sustained.

  13. Loren 2016-03-03 14:11

    When I think Roger Hunt, I think of that great quote from Good Morning Vietnam Nam, “What that guy needs…” Talk about a sex fixation!

  14. Kim Conlin 2016-03-03 14:39

    Watched SDPB Live House broadcast- Deutsch asked House to let 1008 die- after all the talk the vote was 36 yes 29 nay failed-override required 47.
    Supporters from both bodies stand for election in November.
    Tired of the circus?
    VOTE THEM OUT!!

  15. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-03-03 14:42

    Jenny, I heard Haugaard. Appalling. Vile. I will be downloading, transcribing, and offering extending translation of his speech later.

  16. Jenny 2016-03-03 14:50

    Thank you, Cory. Absolutely, Kim – the SD GOP is not as extreme as this, they just can’t be!

  17. Darin Larson 2016-03-03 17:25

    Rep. May said that when HB 1008 was brought to her that she was looking at protecting the transgender students with her support for the bill. Her vote was completely based on that, she said.

    Then she strays from that train of thought to “you have to take everybody into consideration.” Then back to “Children have to be protected. . . . Stand behind your vote. Let’s protect these kids. . . . Let’s stick to our guns and finish riding the horse.”

    To recap pertinent events, after hearing from transgender kids that this bill was unnecessary to protect them and even further that the bill made them feel discriminated against, Rep. May still maintained that she needed to try to protect transgender children because she said they “lost one in a bathroom” about 20 years ago. So, she understands that transgender kids are vulnerable and subject to bullying and suicide, but she wants to single them out with this bill and “protect” them. Uffda!

    I thought conservatives fancied smaller government. That is what they say. I didn’t think that conservatives were for a big government bill that finds a problem where there isn’t one, stamps out local control and then makes the objects of their “protection” feel discriminated against. I would say three strikes and you are out Rep. May.

  18. Darin Larson 2016-03-03 17:42

    OMG, Haugaard takes the cake! I’ll let Cory tackle this guy. I will say that I reserve the right to be smarter tomorrow than I was today. Haugaard obviously does not subscribe to this notion.

  19. leslie 2016-03-05 00:47

    an extremist movement exploded when President Obama was elected, going from some 150 groups in 2008 to more than 1,000 last year. … antigovernment extremists have long pushed, most fiercely during Democratic administrations, rabid conspiracy theories about a nefarious New World Order, a socialist, gun-grabbing federal government and the evils of federal law enforcement.

    (splc wrote in January) link to follow.

    there is a conclusion I wanna make eventually, perhaps related to our new senator enabling trump’s extremism.

    I think liz may thinks like this. I think there are several legislators like this. prolly no big surprise.

Comments are closed.