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South Dakota’s New Tagline: Not as Bad as North Carolina!

Seeming to coordinate with SDGOP chair Dan Lederman’s bushwah about inclusiveness, Governor Dennis Daugaard says South Dakota’s effort to write religious discrimination into law doesn’t make us as bad as North Carolina:

Governor Daugaard says the bill is different from other legislation around the country.  Daugaard says to some extent South Dakota is compared to North Carolina which experienced a big backlash from business for its stance on transgender.

“If anything, I think South Dakota is compared favorably to places like that, and seen as a more tolerant state than might otherwise be the case.”

Daugaard vetoed a bill last year that placed restrictions on the use of public restrooms and locker rooms by transgender students.  He says that may have stalled similar action this year [Jack Taylor, “Daugaard Says South Dakota Is Not Like North Carolina,” KELO Radio, 2017.05.02].

KSFY sent Bridget Bennett to San Francisco to see what locals think of South Dakota’s inclusiveness and their city’s ban on city-funded travel and business with South Dakota and other discriminatory places. San Franciscans sound barely aware of South Dakota in general, let alone our discriminatory laws, but no one Bennett talked to said South Dakota is right to discriminate against LGBT parents:

“People are people and good people make good parents,” [Galen] Maloney, a homeless youth counselor said. “That’s the most important thing, especially when you’re talking about adoption and people just wanting to feel loved.”

Everyone Bennett met in San Francisco shared the same view that LGBT families should have equal rights.

“I think families come in all sorts of forms and shapes and to be part of an alternative family in a state that is a little more conservative, it can definitely be harder and creates a lot more pressure as a family unit,” [Mario] Sosa said.

So even while city employees may not travel to South Dakota that often, San Francisco’s symbolic ban could influence other residents’ travel plans.

“Nobody is going to want to come visit your state,” [Brian] Parent said. “They’re going to be afraid to visit your state, they’re not going to feel welcome and that’s what you should want is people visiting you and seeing what your lifestyle is like and no one is going to want to go there” [Bridget Bennett, “San Francisco Community Discusses Intent of South Dakota Ban,” KSFY, 2017.05.01].

South Dakota—Not as Bigoted as North Carolina!…hmmm…. Governor Daugaard, that line won’t work any better than South Dakota—Not as Deadly as Mars!

9 Comments

  1. Craig 2017-05-03 09:54

    “South Dakota—Not as Bigoted as North Carolina!”

    That is quite a bumper sticker.

    I suspect when the NCAA starts threatening to pull tournaments out of our state, our legislature will start changing their tune, because the only thing bigots love more than discrimination is cold, hard cash.

  2. Loren 2017-05-03 09:55

    Nice to see we are stepping up in the world. SD used to be “not as bad as” Mississippi! :-)

  3. Rorschach 2017-05-03 10:32

    Oh no you don’t! South Dakota taxpayers paid good money to Larry the Shiller to come up with the slogan, “It’s better to live in South Dakota than to die on Mars.” We haven’t gotten our money’s worth out of that one yet, and now you want to change it? We don’t want no free slogans here! Only ones that cost a lot of money from Larry the Shiller – owned by the former GOP Party chair and employing the governor’s daughter. Don’t mess with the GOP gravy train by offering free stuff.

  4. John Kennedy Claussen, Sr. 2017-05-03 20:15

    Back in the Spring of 2012, Governor Daugaard on Inside Keloland, after returning from a trade trip to China to promote South Dakota pizza making said, (to paraphrase him) that China was just a little more socialistic than us. And now he claims we are “Not as Bad as North Carolina.”

    If you can get beyond the question some may ask as to why there are two Dakotas, then our new economic slogan should be “Less socialistic than China and ‘not as bad as North Carolina’….. South Dakota… ‘Great Faces, Great Places.'”

  5. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2017-05-03 21:00

    The Chinese want to take us over by selling us cheap plastic junk. South Dakota wants to beat the Chinese by getting them fat on our cheese.

  6. Porter Lansing 2017-05-03 21:05

    Asian people eat as much cheese as Dakotans eat fish heads and squid. Probably was an EB-5 undercover pay off. lol

  7. John Kennedy Claussen, Sr. 2017-05-03 21:47

    CORRECTION! It was 2013 and not 2012, and the Governor said, “Its (China) more of a socialistic country (04:29)” in a comparative sense, thus suggesting that we are socialistic too, but less….And the Orion guy says he is going to bring Italian/American pepperoni pizza to China…. But any how, here is the link to ………”Great Faces, Great Pizza!”

    http://www.keloland.com/news/article/featured-stories/inside-keloland-sd-business-trip-to-china

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