Representative Fred Deutsch (R-4/Florence) said he wouldn’t piddle around with a potty bill this year, but Senator Jim Bolin (R-16/Canton) whipped one out yesterday. The latest expression of potty panic from South Dakota Republicans, Senate Bill 49 would repeal the South Dakota High School Activities Association’s transgender sports participation policy, which is in its fourth year of working without any major local controversy. Just as it would usurp the authority of the experts the school districts select to manage their extracurriculars, SB 49 would replace the students’ and the schools’ determination of which team Johnny, Janey, and anyone in between should play on with the judgment of one doctor, nurse, or chiropractor who gives athletes their five-minute once-over at the assembly-line summer physicals.
Senator Bolin has been trying to tally whackers for the SDSHAA since 2015, when he sponsored HB 1195, a mostly identical measure that would have annulled the 2014 version of the SDHSAA transgender participation policy. That bill died in the Senate 16–19. Bolin’s 2016 potty-panic bill, crafted in collaboration with now-departed anti-anything-not straight-and-male Representative Roger Hunt, passed died 2–5 in Senate Education.
Channeling the Ministry of Truth, Senator Bolin claims that dismissing the gender claims of students and their communities is about fairness:
We have sports that are set up — boys go over 39-inch hurdles in 110 meters and girls have to clear 33-inch hurdles in 100-meter hurdles. We have a smaller ball for girls basketball than we do for boys basketball. If we’re going to have these modifications, then my point is that the birth certificate should be the determining factor in which team you play on. It’s all about fair competition [Sen. Jim Bolin, in Lisa Kaczke, “S.D. Bill Aims to Gut High School Transgender Policy: ‘It’s All About Fair Competition,” that Sioux Falls paper, 2019.01.14].
Libby Skarin, policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota say, good grief, again?
This is yet another attempt to single transgender students out for discrimination in our state. And like the many bathroom bills before it, this bill would hurt transgender students, violate federal law and expose our state to legal liability. The policy that this bill seeks to undo has been in place since 2015 without any problems. All that existing policy does is allow fair and equitable participation in high school activities by all South Dakota high school students. But this bill, like its predecessor bills, seeks to erode that fairness and is just a solution in search of a problem.
Barring transgender students from the benefits of athletics holds them back from living authentic and fulfilling lives. Participation in athletic activities has a widespread positive impact on the social, physical and emotional well-being of students and provides kids with lessons about self-discipline, teamwork, perseverance, success and failure. They bring excitement, joy and a sense of belonging – a sense that is important for all kids, but particularly vital for kids who may already feel like outcasts.
All young people should have the opportunity to play high school sports and have their personal dignity respected. Transgender students are no different. No one is harmed by allowing transgender people to compete consistent with who they are [Libby Skarin, ACLU-SD, press release, 2019.01.14].
The ACLU notes that passage of SB 49 would make South Dakota “the first and only state in which the state legislature intervened to override a policy put in place by the association that knows high school activities the best.”
That’s South Dakota conservatism: determined to substitute big government for the judgment of any individual or group who refuses to bow to the GOP—the Grand Old Phallus.
But hey, young people, don’t leave! Kristi Noem will give you broadband!
Cory wrote:
Just as it would usurp the authority of the experts the school districts select to manage their extracurriculars,.
The legislature has the authority. Period.
Once we legalize sports betting in South Dakota, it is imperative we have transparent rules. We cannot have ringers running in high school hurdle events. When high school track events begin to look like rigged horse races, we just need to pull the plug on it all. I should also mention that it’s a crying shame we can’t legally bring our guns to high school activities in South Dakota.
Focus on real issues not some stupid pee-brain bill. Never has been an issue. So why bother wasting Legislature’s time.
Move Legislative Sessions To Summer! – It’s proven that people living where it rarely rises above freezing for weeks and even months at a time have diminished capacity to perform normal brain functions. Notice how the kooks act out in South Dakota, this time of year? Unless you do strenuous exercise daily (when living “below the thickening point of human blood”) your brain is operating at significantly less ability than in the summer.
Do this simple test but lower the temp to 20 instead of 65. Results will speak for themselves. Then, send the “politically chosen” to bed ’til it’s above freezing for five straight weeks. You’re embarrassing your state, nationally.
https://www.education.com/science-fair/article/temperature-affect-mind/
If science is fact then why is Biology fluid? I mean really? Why does the Left grab on to every supposed civil rights cause? I get race, gender. But Trans? Really? A person born a man, either dresses as a woman or gets surgery to “kind of” become a woman and then use the woman’s bathroom. WTF really. How is biology not complete?
Don’t throw in some BS about a person having both “parts” please. I’m talking definite gender.
How do you not see this as a psychological disorder? And if you don’t then how can you see any psychological disorder as such? Because if you can explain trans then you should explain any mental happening as choice.
KOOK WATCH – Steve Pearson (gender identification discrimination tendencies)
Biology is fluid, Steve, and that is a scientific fact. Most of what we consider life consists of water and the chemicals that dissolve in and are carried by water. Some of those chemicals are organic compounds and some of those are hormones, some are enzymes and some provide the more solid parts building blocks.
It’s not too hard to figure out that sex involves not just the body parts that develop in utero and continue to develop after birth, but the hormones and chemicals that affect every system over the course of development. Those hormones and chemicals aren’t secreted in the same levels or affect parts of the system in the same way in every individual. We are all different. Our biology is different and our experiences in life are different. This has always been the case, and always will.
An aspect ot promoting these policies indicates negative stereotypes about women and girls – that they are less competent than people born with male genitalia. Girls have less strength, less stamina, less competitve ability, less intellect, and are inferior in all these ways and more. Hence girls need to be protected by taking steps to prohibit them from competing with males, including transgender individuals.
While early anti-girl stereotypes focus only on males, the sponsors of this bill now seek to extend such negative stereotypes demeaning girls to cover transgender girls as well. This bill, in effect, is based on the stereotype that transgender females are more competent, stronger, better competitors, smarter and superior in all ways to non-transgender girls. In this fictional world, non-transgender girls are so delicate and weak, laws are necessary to protect them from competing with other girls who happen to be transgender.
Negative, but totally false, stereotypes about the physical and mental capabilities of girls have been around for too many years. I remember in the 1960’s when there were high schools rules in some communities that prevented girls from competing in full court basketbalI. They just couldn’t be strong enough for the challenge of running back and forth on a full basketball court. And what about allowing young women to vote, or married women to own their own property – heavens forbid!
And I recall when the same discriminatory mindset applied against females in chess competition – girls were dumber than men and it would be unfair to them to permit both sexes to participate in tournaments. People like Susan Polgár blew that stereotype up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Polg%C3%A1r
South Dakota girls and women deserve better. We need to end, rather than propagate, negative stereotypes about our mothers, wives, sisters, daughters and nieces.
Donald that is just plain dumb. Male. Female. That’s it. Of course people are different but that doesn’t make them less female or less male. Or more.
“Gender fluidity” is a choice, not a scientific fact.
See Cory, I told you the pubs would have another potty bill this year. Potty bills, guns And border walls are more important to SD republicans than jobs and education.
What a messed up group of legislators in Pierre. South Dakotans deserve better than these genital obsessed ammosexuals.
It’s hilarious that BCB thinks females are generally as strong as males.
I know BCB is anti-science, but his thinking is just scientifically inaccurate.
Steve Pearson is on the KOOK WATCH. He makes claims with no factual backup. He harbors subconscious psychological problems. And, he calls very intelligent people like Donald Pay “just plain dumb”. That’s classic self loathing projection.
Ahem ~ Science tells us that gender is certainly not binary; it may not even be a linear spectrum. Like many other facets of identity, it can operate on a broad range of levels and operate outside of many definitions. And it also appears that gender may not be as static as we assume. – Harvard University
http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2016/gender-lines-science-transgender-identity/
Jenny,
it’s a shower bill, not a potty bill.
Want to discuss State track meet records between males and females?
There is biologically only two Porter. One has a uterus and the other doesn’t.
Wrong KOOK WATCH – Jason (Jon) Gohn (unsubstantiated claims intending to deny his personal gender fluidity – self loathing and denial)
“Grand Old Phallus.” Another good one Cory.
Misogyny is such a bedrock of the Wrong. Grand old Phallus, home to toxic masculinity, rejected by emotionally secure, strong, sane men everywhere.
The Wrong is so messed up. Steve and Jason are excellent examples and Ryan will probably be chirping soon, since I said “misogyny”.
All the women rising up to public office, #MeToo, gay and trans men, are all huge threats to that twisted image of masculinity. A change is coming and it’s making a better world, but we do have to fight through their fear.
Dame Magazine has an article about how the Grand Phallus Party and the Wrong is attacking Ocassio-Cortez and how typical that is for them to react to what they perceive as threats of a sexual nature. Those threats are not limited to women, but include the entire gamut of LBTGQI.
goo.gl/UZ9RPN
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got nearly 62 percent of her $2 million haul from small individual contributions — less than $200 — giving her the highest rate of funding from small donors of any member of the 116th House of Representatives.
She’s very popular and potentially very powerful. She’s being called the liberal Sarah Palin … without the cocaine problems.
As usual, Jason relies on stereotypes. Relative strengh of each individual, male or female depends in large part on relative size. The state men’s wrestling champ at 103 pounds might have some problems with an opponent substantially larger, whether male or female.
And who lives longer, men or women? Ever wonder why? The Guardian has some interesting analysis on the relative strength of men and women:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/11/the-weaker-sex-science-that-shows-women-are-stronger-than-men
I wonder how Jason would do in s a strength contest with Bev Francis, Chen Wei Ling, Iris Kyle, Aneta Florczyk, Tatiana Kashirina, Robin Coleman, or Heini Koivuniemi – who holds the Guinness World Record for throwing full beer kegs. She threw a 27-pound beer keg over a bar set at 11 feet, 4 inches high. See:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MBlFy64i18
My money is on the gals. Jason’s hiny could be in big trouble if little girlie Heini decides to throw big bad him like she throws a full beer keg. And my guess is that Jason is probably even a “boy!”
Well Bolin, your nasty, small, petty, mean, vile, little bill is not at all about fairness. You know it. I know it. Everyone knows that’s just your excuse to exercise your own sexual insecurities. And here’s what your stinking bill results in, here’s your “fairness:”
Terri Bruce WAS a wonderful South Dakotan who fought for equal rights for everyone and loved this state. But hateful people like you, Bolin, wore Bruce down. One ugly, disgusting, hateful word after another, one hateful, ugly, disgusting bill after another Bolin. Eventually the hate became too much, you won, Bruce suicided last night. The story is in the AL.
How does that make you feel Bolin? Do you feel safer now? Do you feel relieved? Look at the paper Bolin, see the face of the person whose suffering finally became overwhelming and know, for a cold, hard fact, that you played a part in that.
I am so angry right now that I would come right through the ethernet now if I could, to confront you and the others who urge you on. I want to confront you with your horrible shame.
“statistic from the National Center for Transgender Equality that says 41 percent of transgender people report having attempted suicide at some point in their lives, a rate 25 percent higher than the general population.”
Debbo,
Your comments pretty much sums up the republican paranoia with the potty bill.
Terri Bruce was a special person and it is sad that he is no longer with us. I had the privilege of meeting him at two different Democratic fund raisers and admired his passion for equal rights for all.
republicans blatant disregard for humanity is frightening, Terri was not a threat to anyone and probably had more to offer society then Bolin ever will.
Being “steve Pearson” is a choice, not a scientific fact.
Thanks Roger, and I’m sorry that you’ve lost someone you knew, but glad you had the opportunity. I didn’t, but it’s not hard to understand that one who’s fighting for the rights of themselves and others is worth knowing.
That makes people like Bolin beneath notice.
When I was in Europe
Peeing wasn’t any issue for anyone
Look at the sexual crime stats in Europe if you can find them
Just saying, not an issue unless you make it one, which for some reason it really bothers
SD’ers Transgenders aren’t the perpetrators,
It’s the priests, where are those bills BOLIN?
Bob, you have been disproved so many times, just #4Science, that you and that other fellow, Not Bob, are legendary out behind the Brass Rail.
T,
More teachers than priests commit sex crimes.
This about showers and sports, not potties.
Jason
This is about sex crimes, number one redneck worries is parents worry is little Janie being exposed to a penis and repercussions, which there are not. Your a stats person only case I found is little white boys harrasing a trans.
Teachers and priest yes are the worst I’m just saying where are those bills being introduced.
For some reason we hide these incidents yet have free rein on the trans children.
Showers and toilets aren’t that big of deal to deal with. Far as I’m concerned group showers and toiletring are out dated and should be done away with. Look at the obese child forced to undress and expose themselves in a group setting. Horrid. Update the bathroom facilities. This is an delicate issue that can be addressed for all and solved but not with bullying hatred as this bill introduces.
deebo, just can’t stop thinking about me, eh? Any time you talk about men, you daydream about me, don’t you? I used to consider your hateful words as evidence of your misandry and racism, but I believe I have read between the lines and I now see that you use racism and sexism to mask the fact that you can’t control your lust for and jealousy of white men. I’m not a fan of shakespeare, but he wrote a few things that stick with me. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
As for this senate bill, it sounds super dumb and hillbilly-esque. I agree it is a solution looking for a problem.
I think it’s sort of funny, though, that this conversation puts some people in a box regarding their gender opinions. Thinking about things like the height of hurdles, the size of basketballs, the location of tee boxes on golf courses…do people who oppose this bill think there should be no differences in sports rules or equipment between boys and girls? If you support differences in rules and equipment, but oppose this bill, what is the basis for your conflicting opinions of fairness between genders?
I support equality. Treat boys and girls equal. Treat men and women equal. Treat all people equal. There should be one team for each sport, irrespective of gender, and may the best athletes prosper. Also, one large all-person locker room. Also, all-person restrooms. Everyone is so scared of naked wieners and breasts that it makes ’em crazy. Let em hang.
Ryan is a certified “KOOK”. You don’t need to lie and tell us what you believe. It’s fully apparent what you believe. As The Rock told me, “It doesn’t matter what you believe, Jabroni. You’re a low level curtain jerker.”
Jason, you half-educated haybilly. The issue isn’t the ratio of abuse. The issue is the Catholic Church covering up Priest sex-abuse, hiding it from law enforcement and relocating offenders, leading to continued abuse in new locations.
OK, porter. I would correct you, but you have obviously memorized a lot of quotes from mostly naked male professional wrestlers to use against me in your battle to eradicate reason from our world, so I’ll just let you play with your “action figures” all by yourself.
Ryan ← KOOK
This is hilarious. Not one Democrat including Cory will discuss the State Track meet records.
This is what the bill is about.
Why are the Democrats afraid to discuss what the bill is about?
Jason, this policy has been in place now four years (three full); have records fallen because of this policy?
I will ask you again – as I have asked each time this discussion comes up: you say it is about “showers”; why is it RIGHT to have gender identical children showering together? In want context is a “gang shower” ever a good idea?
I am with o.
If I am selecting who joins me in the shower, the list of my preferred shower partners would be very long before it included one male, much less a group of males.
Maybe that’s why the boys set so many track meet records. They’re running from other naked boys and their shower parties. Females aren’t in as much of a hurry because showering with females is awesome.
So this is a thread about discrimination against certain South Dakotans who have an extremely high rate of suicide. It’s about trying to force religion into state government law.
Jason tries to make it girls v. boys. Ryan drools over young girls bodies. Almost– almost, makes me want OS back. 😖😖😖😖😖😖 Pitiful.
deebo, nice try. I drooled over high school girls’ bodies when I was in high school. I prefer the adult female figure nowadays. And showering with females was awesome when I was a young high schooler, and it is still awesome now. You’re just mad nobody ever drooled over you. You should try letting yourself be a little more fun, you might enjoy not being such a frumpy nutcase.
0,
How many transgender boys have competed in the girl’s events at the State track meet in the past 3 years?
Why is it not right 0 to only have boys shower with boys and girls shower with girls?
It seems that Ryan knows Debbo’s showering routine. How is that exactly?
Ryan,
If you and every Democrat wants equality for everything then that will have to include tax rates.
The discrimination by Democrats against the middle class and rich is so ironic.
Equality means no progressive tax system. I can go along with that.
It also means no affirmative action.
Jason, I’m not a democrat, I’m not a republican, I’m a fence sitter. I see gray area in every issue. I respect nuance and don’t like party labels because labels give idiots comfort in their ignorance of the real issues.
I agree that equality means equality, so your suggestions of radical equality don’t scare me off, I agree with what you probably mean.
Perhaps not every detail but the theme.
And Roger, what in the world are you talking about? Make one good argument as to how anything I said could lead to your ridiculous conclusion and I will mail to a charity of your choice twenty six dollars. Weirdo.
Ryan,
I didn’t mean to imply you were a Democrat.
This should help the situation- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/karen-pence-takes-teaching-job-at-school-that-bans-lgbtq-students-and-faculty/
Ryan
Take your $26 and put where the sun doesn’t shine.
Listen up, weirdo, I’m not the one that said anything about Debbo’s showers.
Roger, you are the only one who did actually.
Local liberal makes it big and gets quoted in The Nation
Congrats Cory even if they got your name wrong later in article.
Good on you Cory, congratulations.
That is a great find, Kal Lis.
Ryan, get past your shower talk and try to focus on the issue. Good grief. You are so easily triggered.
Roger and Porter, I think when Ryan is triggered like this it’s best just to let him work it out by himself. He cant focus till he does.
Yes, roger and porter, please take note of your advisor’s guidance and hush. I got this.
The issue Ryan. The issue– equal rights for all, including transgender people. A heartbreakingly high suicide rate. GOP pandering. Potty panic.
Not. You.
Debbo,
Equal rights means no progressive tax.
You understand that right?
It also means no affirmative action.
You understand that right?
I think I will stick around and make you look like a fool.
I’m guessing Debbo has no kids.
Debbo,
What would you tell your daughter when she and the rest of the girls lose to a person without a uterus by 3 seconds at the State track meet?
Instead of a civics quiz, let’s try a biology quiz.
Debbo,
Can you explain why a person with no uterus can run longer and faster than a person with a uterus 99% of the time?
Here is some child abuse.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/42237/britains-first-transgender-family-now-amanda-prestigiacomo
No. That’s not what equal rights means.
Since you’re so obsessed with track records, why don’t you look them up to learn how many are held by transgender students.
I will give you credit for persistence in dodging the real issue here. Now I’m going to bed.
Right wingnut Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire has absolutely no credibility, a true conservative should be ashamed of the Daily Wire.
The Troll sayeth, I think I will stick around and make you look like a fool.
Look in the mirror and see the fool, fool.
Science is on my side on gender identity and climate change.
This problem goes away if we get rid of sports and offer kids noting but fine arts activities. Debate, one-act play, oral interp, orchestra, band, chorus (alto? tenor? all that matters is that you can hit the notes), school newspaper… open to all students, regardless of where they pee, which is none of the Legislature’s business.
Denied. Sports are really the reason we have high schools and the biggest and fastest fellows rule the earth. A few clarinet solos here and there are OK, but thespianism and the gravy sucking debates really wreck a lot of kids for the long haul. We need more boot camp style PE classes, in grudznick’s opinion, and way less home economics and drama classes.
Sports and gladiator competitions are outdated. Evolution and the future demands as CH states, science and critical thinking activities. The countries that are ahead of our achademic talents teach competition within oneself and scholastic feats. Sports should be on the sideline, not frontline in this day and age
T, sports have value and are worthwhile endeavors. They really do have valuable lessons to teach. The problem with sports, and it’s a huge problem, is the extent to which they are overvalued in today’s culture in the USA and most of the world.
Sports should be on par with other school activities. I don’t know how to make that happen without forcing a massive overhaul of school financial and educational structure or population wide frontal lobotomies.
Debbo
Agree my answer was slanted but meant the
He man days are over where it is sole purpose
Of high school. It should be down on same level competitions as science and math
We don’t share enthusiasm for science and math like the Japanese per say.
Look at the money spent on sports in USA
If we are truly to be competitive in the future we must evolve
I agree T.
Ellen Page gave an impromptu and undeniably passionate speech about the evil that emanates from the current deministration on The Late Showwith Stephen Colbert. She was referring specifically to the hateful V.P. I am paraphrasing her description of him.
“Imagine that. He has spent his life trying to hurt people in the most painful way possible, to cause the greatest amount of suffering.”
What a monster, along with nearly all of the current deministration.
The speech begins at about 6:30.
https://goo.gl/g74xiR
“The California-based Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy studied the impact of Senate Bill 2407. [Trans bathroom bill.]
“Researchers analysed data for a period before and after the 2016 bill passed, comparing criminal incident reports related to assault, sex crimes and voyeurism in public restrooms, locker rooms and dressing rooms between locations in Massachusetts that enforced trans-inclusive policies versus those that did not.
“Findings indicated that reports decreased after the bill was passed. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Sexuality Research and Social Policy in July and concluded that “fears of increased safety and privacy violations as a result of nondiscrimination laws are not empirically grounded.”
https://goo.gl/z1Guch