State Rep. Brandei Schaefbauer, R-Aberdeen, speaks on the South Dakota House floor on Jan. 17, 2024. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
By: Makenzie Huber
PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) – The South Dakota House of Representatives supported a bill Wednesday at the Capitol in Pierre to prohibit transgender people from using restrooms or changing rooms aligned with their gender identity in public schools or on state-owned property — including prisons and higher education campuses.
The same body failed to advance a bill that would prevent transgender people from updating a birth certificate or driver’s license to reflect their gender identity.
House supports bathroom bill
The chamber endorsed House Bill 1259 in a 49-21 vote and sent it to the Senate.
The legislation requires schools and state-owned properties to designate multi-occupancy changing rooms, restrooms or sleeping quarters exclusively for females or males. That includes private property for school-sanctioned events. Schools would be responsible for finding “reasonable accommodation” for people, but state-owned properties would not have to provide any accommodations.
Similar bills were introduced in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2022.
Rep. Brandei Schaefbauer, R-Aberdeen, said she introduced the bill because “men shouldn’t be allowed in women’s private spaces.”
School districts, local governments and the state could be sued and held responsible for plaintiff’s attorney fees and costs if someone sues them for a “member of the opposite sex” using a bathroom or changing room with the permission of the political entity or administration, or because the political entity didn’t take “reasonable steps to prohibit the member of the opposite sex” from using the space.
School districts differ on policies for bathroom use. The Vermilion School District has a policy that allows students to use the restroom they prefer that corresponds with their “consistently asserted gender.”
Lawmakers opposed to the legislation compared the bill’s intention to race-segregated bathrooms and worried about the potential legal ramifications school districts and the state could face if the bill passed. Yankton Republican Rep. Mike Stevens said the bill is “not necessary” because school districts have managed their own policies and accommodations for decades.
Sioux Falls Democratic Rep. Erin Healy told lawmakers who expressed safety concerns that it is illegal in the state to enter a bathroom with the intent to harm another person. She said the bill was rooted in “fear and misinformation.”
“Passing this bill is going to leave girls and women — transgender or not — vulnerable to accusations and discrimination based on how they conform to someone else’s standard of gender,” Healy said, “and protecting the rights of transgender people expands protections for all women by ensuring that nobody’s going to dictate who you are by how you look.”
House rejects legislation prohibiting gender changes on government documents
Lawmakers split 35-35 — and therefore failed to pass — House Bill 1260. It would prohibit birth certificate and driver’s license updates regarding gender identification.
Schaefbauer, who introduced the bill, said it would provide clarity for governments to make public policy and for third parties, such as medical providers, to assist unresponsive patients in an emergency situation.
The bill would only allow birth certificates to be amended within a year of a person being born or after a court finds the document was factually inaccurate.
Fort Pierre Republican Will Mortenson told lawmakers he voted in support of the bathroom bill but would vote against HB 1260. He could identify how the prior legislation might “impact someone else.”
“I can’t see how it impacts me when it just says what’s on someone’s driver’s license,” Mortenson said.
Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt, R-Sioux Falls, said the bill could negatively impact people with sex chromosome anomalies found later in life.
After the tie vote, Rep. Logan Manhart, R-Aberdeen, announced an intent to reconsider the bill. The House could revive the bill later if it draws enough support from lawmakers.
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