Legislation

Transgender bathroom bill passes through South Dakota Legislature

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/02/17/transgender-bathroom-bill-passes-through-south-dakota-legislature.html?cmpid=NL_morninghl/

PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota would be the first state in the U.S. to approve a law requiring transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their sex at birth if the governor signs a bill passed Tuesday by the state Senate.

The Senate voted 20-15 to send the bill to Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard, who initially responded positively to the measure but said last week he'd need to study it more before making a decision.

Advocates say the bill is meant to protect the privacy of students, but opponents say it discriminates against vulnerable adolescents.

Under the plan, schools would have to provide a "reasonable accommodation" for transgender students, such as a single-occupancy bathroom or the "controlled use" of a staff-designated restroom, locker room or shower room.

Republican Sen. David Omdahl urged other legislators Tuesday to support the bill to "preserve the innocence of our young people."

Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans unsuccessfully opposed the measure in the Senate.

The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota and Human Rights Campaign have been vocal in their opposition to the measure and have called on Daugaard to veto the legislation.

"History has never looked kindly upon those who attack the basic civil rights of their fellow Americans, and history will not treat kindly those who support this discriminatory measure," Chad Griffin, the president of the LGBT-rights organization Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement Tuesday.

Transgender advocates have also criticized comments made by some lawmakers, including Omdahl, about transgender people.

"I'm sorry if you're so twisted you don't know who you are," Omdahl said at a recent event when asked about the bill. "I'm telling you right now, it's about protecting the kids, and I don't even understand where our society is these days."

Several states have looked at addressing gender and public facilities in the past several years. But South Dakota would be the first state in the nation to put such a measure into law, said Joellen Kralik, a research analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The Legislature's passage of the bill is "shocking," said Thomas Lewis, a transgender student in his senior year at Lincoln High School in Sioux Falls, the state's most populous city.

"At this point, I'm hoping that the governor has a sense of humanity and the common sense not to write this bill into law," said Lewis, who is planning to attend college in Minnesota. "I am so glad to be leaving soon. I can escape the oppression that my home state wants to put on me."

Supporters say South Dakota's plan is a response to changes in the Obama administration's interpretation of the federal Title IX anti-discrimination law related to education. Federal officials have said that barring students from restrooms that match their gender identity is prohibited under Title IX.

i take it there's a big shemale crowd in south dakota?

I doubt it. I am shocked. Isn't South Dakota a rural state/ scenic state & Native American territory?
I would of expected traditional roles of men are men are women are women.

a liberal state... need i say more?

10 minutes ago

USA / Politics

South Dakota lawmakers move to ban transgender students from some bathrooms.

http://m.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2016/0217/South-Dakota-lawmakers-move-to-ban-transgender-students-from-some-bathrooms/
* Video 01:08 , embedded links *

The South Dakota legislature passed a bill requiring students to use the bathroom of their gender at birth, another point in ongoing debate over balancing growing LGBT rights with those of conservatives fearful for their religious rights.

By Lucy Schouten, Staff / February 17, 2016

South Dakota's governor could make the state the first in the United States to approve a law that would require transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their sex at birth.

South Dakota could become the first state with legislation requiring students, even those identifying as transgender, to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender at birth.

South Dakota’s bill – passed by the state legislature and awaiting the governor’s signature – is the first to put school bathrooms under law, but it highlights the tense debate over LGBT issues that is playing out around the country, in which both religious conservatives and gay rights advocates fear their rights are eroding.

The bill, which South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R) has said sounds like a good idea but he wants to study it before deciding, also requires public schools to find “reasonable accommodation” for students who identify as transgender. This could include a single-occupant restroom or designating a staff facility for use temporarily.

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The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Fred Deutsch (R), said the bill is designed to ensure the privacy of students in the school’s most private areas, and it responds to an opinion voiced by the Department of Justice and the Department of Education under the Obama administration, which overstepped its authority, he told Dana Ferguson for the Argus Leader.

In that case, lawyers for the federal agencies wrote in an amicus brief for a lawsuit involving transgender high school student in Virginia: “Treating a student differently from other students because his birth-assigned sex diverges from his gender identity constitutes differential treatment on the basis of sex under Title IX.”

The political wrangling has inspired appreciation from religious groups and sharp criticism from advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights.

"At this point, I'm hoping that the governor has a sense of humanity and the common sense not to write this bill into law," Thomas Lewis, a high school senior who identifies as transgender in Sioux Falls and who plans to attend a university in Minnesota, told the Associated Press. "I am so glad to be leaving soon.”

Legislators of both parties worried it could lead to lawsuits without providing money for schools to fight them.

[Recommended:Behind America's seismic shifts on transgenderism, loving parents]

"We're fixing nothing, but we're creating problems," state Sen. Bernie Hunhoff, (D) told Argus Leader.

Tensions between religious liberties and LGBT rights have become increasingly fraught in the wake of the US Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. Some observers are pointing to Utah as a potential model for compromise and respectful debate. In early 2015, senior leaders from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lobbied the Utah legislature to pass a law that provided new protections for LGBT people and people of faith to live as they chose.

“There are ways to do this,” Mark Goldfeder, senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University in Atlanta told The Christian Science Monitor after a particularly divisive battle over LGBT rights in Houston made national headlines. “You get people of good faith on both sides to sit down and have a conversation, instead of everybody running to say anti this or anti that, and bifurcating the country again. People need to take other people’s concerns seriously, and not immediately label them as either anti-religion or anti-equality.”

This report contains material from the Associated Press.

What I want to know is WHY aren't the other groups screaming at the top of their lungs that this is either wrong in a spiritual perspective or just stupid from a criminal one?
Or is everyone objecting & we are only hearing about Christians from the main stream, alphabet media?

ALL 5- Major Religions are against homosexuality.
(Jew, Christian, Hindi, Buddhist, Muslim)
But only one thinks it is okay kill you for it.

What is Islam's position on homosexuality?

Summary Answer:
Islam goes beyond mere disapproval of homosexuality.  Sharia teaches that homosexuality is a vile form of fornication, punishable by death.  Beneath the surface, however, there are implied references to homosexual behavior in paradise, and it has been a historical part of Arab and Muslim culture.

Islam and Homosexuality http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/quran/026-homosexuality.htm/


Chaos.. Is on the way.

they throw gays off the rooftops... ISIS has been busy with this

Hope they make separate ones for aliens too...hate it when those greys come in and stink up place

Hhhaaa. Where is DoDo_David ?
I need his species to tell the infidels of my my species that I am NOT happy about this.

I KNOW of one, she said her mum died and is living with her auntie in South Dakota,New York.

Where is South Dakota???
Anywhere near North Dakota?

Nothing.. Going on!? Ha! Sounds like they have been keeping some secrets from the rest of us

But.. But..I don't want to know what is behind door #3

Next they'll have a door #4 for Beastiality

well, the time and money is being well spent in North Dakota, a place well known for the transgender night life...

But this legislation is in South Dakota. Are they road trip club hopping ? Wtf!?

question mark maybe? seems to fit...

Oh for heavens sake! Insanity.

Topic: Gender Fluidity
http://m.mingle2.com/topic/show/433213/

According to
Serchin4MyRedWine , sheep will be on the sign next.

Truth can be very scary

i was trying to figure out what the "expression" was...