Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem signed two executive orders banning transgender athletes from participating in leagues with peers who match their gender identity.
Her executive orders came Monday after the state legislature could not agree on the changes she requested to the legislation that would have the same effect. Noem, who initially expressed support for the bill, declined to sign it and urged lawmakers to make changes, citing her belief that it would not hold up in court.
One of the executive orders focused on K-12 students while the other focused on college athletics. Neither mentioned transgender individuals specifically, but both affirmed that only female athletes “based on their biological sex, as reflected on their birth certificate” can participate in women’s sports sanctioned by either a higher education institution, a public school, or a school district.
“Only girls should play girls’ sports,” Noem said in a statement. “Given the legislature’s failure to accept my proposed revisions to HB 1217, I am immediately signing two executive orders to address this issue: one to protect fairness in K-12 athletics, and another to do so in college athletics.”
Transgender sports bans unfairly target children who identify as gender nonconforming or as transgender, opponents to the legislation argued.
“Title IX protects all students – including those who are transgender – from discrimination based on sex,” Jett Jonelis, American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota advocacy manager, said earlier in March of the bill. “If Gov. Noem really wanted to protect fairness in women’s sports, she would tackle the actual threats to women’s sports such as severe underfunding, lack of media coverage, sexist ideologies that suggest that women and girls are weak, and pay equity for coaches. This coalition is clearly fueled by a fear and misunderstanding of transgender people.”
“These attacks on trans women and girls are rooted in the same kind of gender discrimination and stereotyping that has held back cisgender women athletes for centuries,” Jonelis added. “Transgender girls are often told that they are not girls based on inaccurate stereotypes about biology, athleticism and gender. Trans girls are girls – period. This is an attempt to erase transgender people from society.”
Noem will be working with the legislature to schedule a special session in late May or early June to address this issue, among others, including medicinal marijuana and COVID-19 relief, she said.
The orders “resolve the serious drafting errors” in the legislation the governing body had passed, Noem said in a letter explaining the executive orders.
The Republican governor faced a rebuke from her own party after sending the bill back, which she argued was too “vague” and had “overly broad language.” Ian Fury, her communications director, said the criticism was an example of “uninformed cancel culture.”
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Democrats’ and Republicans’ divergence of opinion on transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sports has come to a head in state legislatures across the country. Nationwide, there are more than 50 bills in 28 state governments that would curtail transgender athletes from participating in sports using their preferred gender instead of their biological sex, according to the ACLU.
President Joe Biden signed an executive order on his first day in office that focused on “preventing and combating discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation,” which stated, “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.”
