Anti-Trans Bill Killed by South Dakota Senate Committee

The anti-trans bill proposed in South Dakota last week was effectively killed by a state Senate committee. 

The bill, if passed, would have banned trans people from correcting their sex designation on birth certificates. The Senate Health and Human Services committee voted unanimously to defer the bill to the 41st legislative day. Since the session is 40 days long, the bill effectively fails. 

This has been done once before. On January 26th, 2021, the bill was voted on by the House Health and Human Services committee and was similarly deferred to the 41st legislative day. That same day, Representative Fred Deutsch revived the bill and pushed it to the Senate. It’s unclear whether Deutsch will employ this same method once again, but the probability of it passing is unlikely given the bipartisan opposition to the bill. 

Deustch has long been the face of anti-trans legislation in South Dakota. Last January, Deustch sponsored a bill that would have blocked physicians from treating trans transgender children. In an interview with Tony Perkins on the proposed legislation, Deustch compared trans health care to Nazi medical experiments, saying, “You know, I’m the son of a Holocaust survivor. I’ve had family members killed in Auschwitz. And I’ve seen the pictures of the bizarre medical experiments. I don’t want that to happen to our kids. And that’s what’s going on right now.” He later seemed to apologize, but then denied his comments when asked of them by NBC News. 

Opponents of the bill include a 17-year-old trans boy who testified against the proposed legislation. “I didn’t get a choice in the body I was born in, but I should have a choice in this. I’m not hurting anybody by correcting my birth certificate to match who I am, yet South Dakota legislators want to take this choice away from me too,” he said. 

More anti-trans legislation has yet to be voted on in South Dakota. House Bill 1217 would ban trans girls from competing on their correct school sports teams. Of the repetitive attacks on the trans community in South Dakota, Representative Erin Healy told Associated Press, “It’s incredibly disrespectful that we have to address this every year. It’s infuriating. We are disrupting the lives of a vulnerable population, and I think what we are missing today is empathy and compassion.”