You know, for all the wailing and gnashing of teeth accompanying the Legislature’s passage and the Governor’s signing today of House Bill 1080, the ban on gender-affirming health care for minors in South Dakota, I haven’t heard much talk about one important practical fact about the bill: HB 1080 has no emergency clause. It passed with big enough Republican majorities, more than two thirds, in both the House and the Senate that it could have passed with an emergency clause and taken effect immediately, today. Prime sponsor Representative Bethany Soye (R-9/Sioux Falls) could even have made the case that her bill was “necessary for the immediate preservation of the public…health or safety“, the language so often stretched to meaninglessness on other “emergency” bills.
But Soye and the Legislature didn’t declare the risk children face from gender-affirming care an emergency. They didn’t append an emergency clause to HB 1080. They said this additional instance of legislators playing doctor can wait to take effect until July 1.
The absence of an emergency clause means people who are outraged at this further Republican intrusion into health care, parental rights, personal identity can do something about it. They can start a petition—no, not some feckless feel-good online petition, but a real, legal referendum petition that could put HB 1080 on ice for at least two years and put the bill to a vote of the people in the 2024 general election.
Since feckless Secretary of State Monae Johnson hasn’t updated the ballot question information page and probably doesn’t understand the referendum process herself, let’s review how a referendum works.
- South Dakotans may refer any law approved by the Legislature and signed by the Governor to a public vote, as long as that law does not include an emergency clause [SD Const Art 3 Sec 1].
- Citizens wishing to refer HB 1080 to a public vote must collect signatures on a referendum petition from 17,509 registered South Dakota voters (that’s 5% of the votes cast for Governor in 2022).
- Any adult resident of South Dakota may circulate a referendum petition.
- Citizens have to wait until the end of the Legislative Session—that’s Veto Day, Monday, March 27—to start collecting petition signatures. Once both the Senate President and the Speaker of the House have banged their gavels sine die that day, registered South Dakota voters can sign your referendum petition.
- Citizens have 90 days to collect those 17,509 signatures. Petitioners must submit all of their signed, notarized petition sheets in one batch to the Secretary of State by 5 p.m. on Monday, June 26.
- The Secretary will immediately check the petition by random sample to estimate whether it has 17,509 valid signatures.
- If the Secretary validates the petition, HB 1080 is suspended and placed on the 2024 general election ballot.
- If HB 1080 receives a Yes vote from a majority of voters in the November 5, 2024, general election, it takes effect July 1, 2025. If HB 1080 does not receive a Yes vote from a majority of voters, it is dead.
The Secretary of State does provide petition forms, which must be edited by petition sponsors to give the title of the bill they want to refer and the date of the general election when it would appear on the ballot. The referendum petition for HB 1080 would look like this:
You can also download a PDF version here: ReferendumPetition-2023HB1080.
Sponsors need to submit a copy of the petition form to the Secretary of State before circulating to ensure that the document follows the rules. Big Tip: the form must have both of the pages shown above printed on a single sheet of paper, with “We the Undersigned” and bill title on the front and the circulator’s oath and notary space on the back.
Sponsors, you can submit that form for approval to the Secretary of State tomorrow, or any business day this month or next, before the beginning of circulation. Submit that form and get it approved now, and you can start making copies (again, printed front and back! No stapling separate sheets!) and distributing them to your allies around the state so that everyone can hit the streets, the clubs, the track meets, the drag shows, any friendly place the moment the Legislature adjourns on March 27. You then have 90 full days to collect 17,509 signatures, plus at least 3,500 extra as cushion. Rounding up, that’s 240 signatures a day. Divide that work up among 100 people who are committed to the cause, and each person needs to average 2.4 signatures each day, about 17 signatures each week, from March 27 to June 26.
There are more legal nuts and bolts to a referendum petition drive, and I’ll be happy to lay them out for anyone interested. But what you see above is the basic framework for stopping HB 1080 and putting it to a vote. Collect 17,509 signatures between March 27 and June 26, and you stop the law from taking effect. You keep gender-affirming care for young South Dakotans legal for at least two more years. And you give yourself and your allies a chance to put this question of health care and basic humanity to all the voters of South Dakota.
Opponents of HB 1080, defenders of trans youth, are you game?
Gee, this law will affect how many people in SD? The Nazis did this so much better.
I am down, Mr. H.
This bill will lead to more suicides, depression, helpless families rushing out of state to save their baby’s life, and a bunch of other senselessness.
Soye n em can all eat a decade old potato olé from the crack of a carseat in a broke down Opel Kadett.
Sorry gang. Allowing minors access to powerful drugs that alter body and mind is not good governing. DDT, other ag chemicals and BPA in baby food have already altered the genes in at least three generations not to mention what toxoplasma gondii has been doing to human genetics since time immemorial. If legislatures want to help kids they should fund research and lawsuits to push back against the Earth haters who manufacture poisons and for mental health professionals to treat adolescents with gender dysphoria.
Good grief larry, “Allowing minors access…..” makes it sound like you think there are “over-the-counter,” DIY gender-transitioning kits available on Amazon or down at alley behind the pool hall. The definition of A WHACKADOODLE is someone who takes a possible serious concern and turns it into an ALARMING grand conspiracy that they believe “almost no one” knows about, but they are experts. They ARE experts, of course, at the twisted pathways of their own thought patterns.
Then codify age of consent rather than issue blanket denials to all minors. A pregnant female not yet at the age of consent is the victim of a crime so if a minor is suffering from gender dysphoria criminalize the cause and identify the perpetrators.
1080 IS the intrusion into the parents’ rights (responsibility) to make the health care decisions for their minor children. I thought this was all settled practice. The legislature does not like the potential decision that parents may make, so is taking that decision out of their hands. The party of freedom strikes again.
One is at a loss to understand the bigotry, hate, and fearfulness behind the supporters of HB1080. While we are one people, one race – the human race; we are not all created the same. We are not all created with the same chance for life, or even a “normal” life.
The SD legislators know this well. One senator was instrumental in founding and leading a non-profit to memorialize a granddaughter’s life cut short by factors outside her, or her family’s control. https://www.teamkenadi.com/about-us/our-story/ Yet, when it comes to the kids of “other people” – autocracy knows no bounds, has no morals, lacks all empathy. “Different” people are apparently, expendable, or at least “deserve” to be left to work through their difference on their, and their family’s own. Mark, above, is correct: the National Socialists did this much more efficiently.
Certainly there are other legislators families who have similar stories – having members not blessed with “normalcy”. The legislators collective get-along-to-go along bigotry and autocracy must end.
Please bring forth the petition.
The most obvious cognitive dissonance set up by legislation like this is removing parents’ ability to provide informed consent in states where Republicans preach parental rights.
HB 1080 simply represents a failure of governance by blaming victims and not going after the perpetrators of environmental crimes.
Even bariatric surgery is contraindicated for adolescents.
I submit that a parent who observes gender identity issues early in an offspring and doesn’t seek out a psychologist is doing that child harm and South Dakota’s wretched legislature is hurting parents by not funding universal health care.
Sorry, not sorry.
My good friend was born in between genders. It isn’t that rare. If it happened to her now, she would be dead and the birth certificate probably wouldn’t recognize her existance because there isn’t a box to check for for gender at birth. This bill and the maniacs who endorse it are up to something in their private lives that is way worse than we can imagine. Every time. The question shouldn’t be about punishing people for being different. The question needs to be, “Why are you guys so obsessed with nonbinary infant genitalia?”
In addition, along with what Mr. Kurtz points out, the question that also needs to be front and center, “Who is poisoning our kids and what are we going to do to stop them and make it right?”
No the issue is far from chemical as per Kurtz or genetic as per All Mammal.
The greater anxiety of proponents of such legislation is that of cultural drift, namely, that gender transitioning is unwanted as it has neither a chemical nor a genetic basis. Instead, it is a cultural phenomenon induced largely by social contagion amongst individuals, often minors, who lack maturity understanding matters of identity. Proponents see the matter as another aspect of the culture war.
But ask such proponents for objective evidence as to the cause of their anxiety, for peer-reviewed studies that detail convincing evidence of social contagion as the root cause of their anxiety —and expect to come up nothing but empty-handed.
@DaveFU – You’re trying and failing to appear knowledgeable. In short, prove it! Legitimate valid sources only.
Dave isn’t entirely wrong. The gender reveal sensation society is witnessing currently is a passing fad. What about cochlear implants? Informed consent is the prerogative of parent(s) or legal guardian(s). It varies per state but in most minors cannot give medical consent until 18.
The medications are neither cheap nor without contraindications.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/gender-dysphoria/in-depth/pubertal-blockers/art-20459075
I can’t imagine telling the parents of a newborn hermaphrodite that their baby’s denied surgery is not an issue, but is a fad. Some children need gender-related surgery because of their physiology at birth.
What about the teen girl who suffers PCOS so badly, she keels over and writhes in pain unless she receives androgen blockers because her testosterone levels are killing her? Go on, DaveFN. Tell this teen she needs to go out of state because her health condition is due to her “immaturity” and “lack of understanding” and her needs for hormone prescriptions “aren’t the issue”.
I can say I understand the repercussions of this law, but thanks anyways for that. Although, there may be reams of conditions that are now unlawful to treat that we cannot foresee. Hereditary, epigenetic, infectious, physiological, psychological or whatever. It has nothing to do with maturity or ignorance.
By the way, were you able to make it to the school board meeting on Friday, DaveFN? I imagined, if you had, we would somehow recognize one another on the spot. I didn’t get that vibe from anyone, though. If you were there, how about that guy giving un-registered, in-person proponent testimony? Yowza. I about reached over and touched him when he said Natives are cannibals. I sort of regret not dotting his i.
When a legislature endures members trained in chiropractic, haven’t earned prescriptive authority and deny the efficacy of western medicine voters and residents remain at risk.
About 1 in a 1000 babies is born with ambiguous genitalia or intersex characteristics and with parents’ blessings pediatric surgeons routinely assign a single gender to newborns—with informed consent.
But South Dakota Republicans don’t want schools to even talk about the causes of gender dysphoria. Why? Because their campaign dollars come from white christianists like the Family Heritage Alliance and the LGBT-bashing Family Research Council.
“Social contagion” is an interesting subject. How does that differ from being socialized into certain “girl” and “boy” behavior and having certain expectations about “girls” and “boys?” There is biological sex, and then there are gender roles that we get socialized into. My daughter was born naked, but she wore pants most of the time growing up. Pants used to be for boys only. Lifting weights to tone muscles was for boys and men only, but my daughter took a weight-lifting class in college. Kristi Noem wears pants and hits the gym. Both of them vote, a exclusively male behavior until 100 years ago in the US. Are my daughter and Kristi Noem males? They put on male clothes (cross-dressing in female drag) and do male behaviors (lifting weights and voting), they must be male.
Well, no. Females have a lot more freedom today to be males, or at least do what males exclusively used to do. In a way, “boy” and “girl” are social constructs. They are also, of course, biological constructs, but biology is more than X and Y chromosomes, as Larry points out. But from a cultural standpoint, if women can wear “male clothing” out in society, why do we care if men wear “female clothing” and stroll around on the catwalk?
There is, of course, a lot of difference between putting the other sex’s clothes and cutting off certain body parts to feel more masculine, or more feminine as the case may be. It is not something to be done on a whim, like you would, for example, put on pants rather than a skirt. I’m not sure how I feel about such drastic surgery for minors, but I do know that other sorts of interventions may be appropriate for some kids who are really struggling with their identity. A few years ago a neighborhood kid took his life because his parents refused to accept his feelings about being a girl. For some kids it might be life and death.
What is on the “OK for parents to decide” list and what is on the list for “not OK for parents to decide” when it come to the care for their children? The course of treatment of gender identity is done with medical professionals — therefore under the guidance of medical best practice and guidance of research based methodology. Our legislature has thrown that out for right-wing political ideology. On the opposite end of the medical care spectrum, our legislate has ensured that parental rights can endanger children for religious reasons because those religious beliefs run in tandem with right-wing political beliefs held with our legislature so get a general stamp of approval over a responsibility of child welfare.
So whose freedom — what freedom — what control is really being enforced by this legislature? It’s not about looking out for kids.
Donald Pay – I believe we have been down this discussion route before but correct me if I am recalling a different conversant. There are about 1800 different possible human gender related genetic variants. 1800 different combinations of genes that can result in more or less, weaker or stronger tendencies toward one “pure” gender or another. 1800 different “genders” if you will, not 2. Genetic gender is not and never has been purely an either or/black/white thing. Never. Crap, even the biblical Genesis story carries within it an undertone of gender “flexibility” as it describes the “transformation” of an “Adam” into and “Eve”. Mind you, this was Genesis 2, AFTER the part of the creation story timeline in Genesis 1, where in BOTH male and female humans were created. Adam/Eve was uniquely different to the generic humans created earlier and required a physical intervention by the God-thing (a surgery) to come about.
Toxoplasmosis.
Richard, yeah, expression of gender depends on lots of other chromosomes, untold billions of chemical reactions.
Mr. Deutsch is claiming he’s receiving death threats.
O, I’d think we’d have a lot of parents who’d be willing to sign and circulate a petition to put this question to a vote. I would think the Tom Pischke wing of the GOP base would provide a lot of those signatures. Who is the Legislature to tell parents what health care they may or may not approve for their children?
All Mammal, round up some allies and get ready to circulate. You just need to find someone to serve as official sponsor of the measure.
Question not addressed here: given the ability of the opponents of this bill to work up lots of testimony and demonstrations and press, can those opponents now mount a petition drive to block this bad law? Are they willing to invest the time and resources to freeze the law for two years? Are they willing to roll the electoral dice and put this question to all the people of South Dakota?
I thought maybe we’d hear from more opponents of HB 1080 asking questions about the referendum process. I would think the prospect of suspending the law for two years, regardless of how the statewide vote might go, would get some activists excited. All Mammal, are you hearing from anyone else who thinks referring HB 1080 would be worthwhile?
How is it legal to deny medical care to only one segment of the population? If abortions would save the lives of pregnant mothers,how s it legal for magats to deny thatr medical care?
When you alienate and discriminate against a segment of people (not to mention their millions of allies) by taking away their rights, what do you expect, Fred.
“To all trans youth in MN, you are loved and valued” Governor Tim Walz
Don’t feel bad SD Democrats and LGBTQ, MN has your back. Leigh Finke DFL, MNs first transgender legislator, has a bill out to make MN a trans-refuge state where one can come here from out of state and not face legal repercussions for getting gender affirming care here.
https://www.house.mn.gov/sessiondaily/Story/17586
Mark my word – this law will do nothing but increase the rates of hurting, depression and suicide among SDs LGBTQ youth, not to mention extra stress on their parents. SD Pubs just can’t knock it off with their mean-spirited hate bills. Such a loving Christian bunch SD legislators.
Is this really the kind of state you want SD retailers? Alienating groups of people that have the potential to come to your state in the Summer to enjoy your beautiful Black Hills? Twin Cities Pride is large, vocal, outspoken and just next door.
You know of course that Kristi and the pubs know this will kill kids. They don’t care they have more important things to do, right Ian?
Cory, regarding a referendum, this is a cheap way for the Noem and the Republicans to get a cheap win on a culture war issue that probably affects very few kids in South Dakota. This is what bullies do. They pick on one or a very few of the unpopular kids who have little ability to fight back.
Who is going to bring a referendum on this? You know if the bullies were going to ban high school football, they would have lots of folks carrying petitions. It probably takes someone like me, the king of hopeless causes, to start up a referendum on this. The thing is these kids aren’t hopeless and they are not a cause. They are human beings who may need to see medical and other professionals about their issues. I’m not sure that a referendum is the best way to fight this. It might be better to find attorneys who can sue the state in federal court.
Transgender kids are feeling the brunt of Republican anger because they lost the battle on gay rights. They don’t accept that either but the danged Supreme Court put an end to their enforced bigotry on that issue. So now they go after suffering children as they just have to find some poor group to humiliate and discriminate against. When they lose this battle, which they will when more voters come to their senses, they will find another vulnerable group on which to spew there hate.
Page James-I think you have a DEFINITE, well put, point!!
Donald, on what basis could a court challenge win? If abortion is to be left to the states, and if states are free to restrict access to that health care, wouldn’t gender-affirming care receive the same states’-rights treatment?
A court case may or may not secure an injunction. If a court would overturn the law, that final ruling wouldn’t happen for years. A referendum can stop this law from taking effect and doing the harm its opponents cited immediately. A petition drive is a surer way to secure a two-year stay of this law.
Who is going to bring the referendum? The same people who have made a significant and very visible lobbying push against the bill.
Cory, I have no idea what legal route to take. That’s what attorneys are for. I would, first of all, go after the definition of “sex” in the bill. It’s true people are pigeonholed at birth on the basis of a very superficial surface exam, and that’s fine for most people, but I’m not aware that they actually do much more than look. They don’t do genetic testing. They don’t examine internal structures and determine if they are functioning at birth or at any time unless there is some issue brought forward by a patient. There is a lot of growth and change in function, internal and external, that happens from birth to adolescence, not just in the reproductive system, but in the endocrine system and other parts of the body and its functions that impact sexual expression. So, they skip the entire period from birth to the teen years and standard sexual development from birth to adolescence. That’s bad enouigh, but they also don’t even consider how various chemical pollutants and social stresses interact with all these standard functions to change sexual development.
https://news.yahoo.com/south-dakota-passes-first-law-200000769.html
Forcing children to detransition can cause irreperable harm including depression and suicide. Great! In Northern Mississippi suicides can be arrested because suicide is illegal.
Mr. kurtz,
So which of the possible 1800 genders is “the right one, errrr, two” that perfectly addressing your environmental concerns would assure are of the approved regenerative outcome/type(s)?
Magats have to be the stoopidest, most hateful phony kristians ever invented, ever!
Just sayin’, it’s not ALL environmental, nor is it ALL genetics. Mr. Pay is correct in the INTERACTION of those elements. What the “right” outcome is, is up to the individual, not the state.
If Republicans in South Dakota and other red states want to erase parental consent for patients under the age of eighteen it doesn’t matter how many human genders exist.
Mr. H- I am thinking of another route, at least until we hand in our Roe petitions. I am going to try to contact the Southern Poverty Law Center to add the SD legislature to the hate group list, and from there- hopefully get women, kids, and any other targeted group in SD protection orders from a judge, preventing the hate group from so much as discussing our medical business. It is a long shot. I have not discussed it with anyone, let alone someone with legal sense. Trying to halt the bill for two years won’t be good enough, however if it comes down to that, I will wear the rest of the soles off my shoes. I am willing/able to soldier for the people of SD in any way. A main goal I do have is simply correcting the voting behavior that got us here in the first place. I know so many people who are decent and agree with most of my points of view on actual freedom, but they snicker at President Biden or think queers are contagious. It isn’t a paradox. It is stupidity baked in. The research on collective grooming seems to point to the use of memetic campaigns to work into the psyche. It is witchy(: It worked with getting t-rump elected. We need our own version of putin’s trolling meme army to alter SD culture of hatred and ignorance. No path is easy, so trying them all.
All Mammal: Possible sponsors are Peri Pourier or Shawn Bordeaux, as in traditional D/L/Nakota culture, two spirits are not only accepted but celebrated.
Thank you, CK. The Winktes I know are gifted and it infuriates me how many we lose to violence and the inhospitable environment that causes them to take their talents elsewhere. Justice for Acey D. Morrison’s murder last August is still delayed. It is a hate crime. I can’t find any arrest… I will reach out to the representative and senator this week.
Cory and Donald, here are a couple articles that suggests the State’s new law will be open to challenge and can lead to a considerable loss of federal dollars.
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2018/federal-protections-health-care-risk-transgender-americans
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/transgender-protection-hhs/2021/05/10/0852ce88-b17d-11eb-a980-a60af976ed44_story.html
The second article is from the Washington Post and when I first read it there was no paywall, although a wall appeared when I clicked on it a second time to look for info to copy and paste quotes from the article.
Exactly. Culture war lawsuits raise money for Earth haters like Mrs. Noem and Mr. Deutsch by design.
Hear the father of a trans daughter in MN speak in support of parents making the decision for gender affirming care and supporting MN becoming a trans refuge state.
https://www.facebook.com/RepFinke/videos/1261861171036394
@AllMammal: Winktes are indeed often gifted. Also, your presence on this blog is a gift and I for one don’t take what you espouse lightly. Thank you, sincerely.
States are moving quickly to roll out children’s online safety bills as parents, kids and experts paint an increasingly dire picture of what social media use does to young brains.
– Three Democratic senators have introduced a bill, the Clean Slate for Kids Online Act, which would give Americans the right to demand that tech companies delete personal information collected before a child turned 13.
– Relevant bills have been introduced or are being considered in Maryland, New Mexico, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, New York and New Jersey.- AXIOS
Noem has so much to store she needs a bigger closet.
“MN – an island for LGBTQ2 (two spirits) rights in the Midwest”
MN shakes things up…as usual, because if MN doesn’t do it, who will?
To the SD Legislature, I would like to introduce you to your beautiful DFL Queer caucus neighbors of the MN Legislature! Don’t be afraid to say hello to them, they are big Vikings and Twins fans also.
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/01/17/were-shaking-things-up-minnesotas-lgbtq-lawmakers-see-new-strength-at-capitol
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/01/31/mn-bill-aims-to-create-legal-refuge-for-trans-youth-seeking-medical-care?fbclid=IwAR2eXNNliy8Uri8YKPkkXNOTpli7erHDXjHsrm17O5suUdAKN692uHUIerQ
There is a clear legal route to get this law blocked, and hopefully the same happens soon in South Dakota Arkansas passed a similar law last year, it was promptly enjoined by a federal court, and that preliminary injunction was already upheld by the 8th circuit, which encompasses South Dakota. Given the number of states doing this, I think the matter will end up in the Supreme Court, but the reasoning of Justice Gorsuch in the 2019 Bostock case probably bodes well for those challenging these laws.
https://www.aclu.org/cases/brandt-et-al-v-rutledge-et-al
The biggest likely problem with a referendum is chance of success. Just delaying the law doesn’t do much other than give people an extra year and a half to plan their move out of state. There is a ton of misinformation around this topic, and I don’t really have faith in the majority of voters to figure it out. Surgical procedures are not even done until someone is no longer a minor, but most of the talk has been about mutilating children, and the proponents put a freaking scalpel on their materials. We are really talking about hormones and puberty blockers that are only prescribed in South Dakota after fairly rigorous process.
Mrs. Noem has made sure there’s enough money to fight culture war-driven lawsuits and made sure she had a toady for attorney general.