South Dakoka’s 50-year-old Gov. Christi Noem threw her weight behind a bill that would ban transgender athletes from competing in respected gender categrories, preventing transgender boys from competing with girls, and, at the same time, banning transgender boys from competing as girls. Noem and other physical education experts say it gives transgender athletes unfair advantage in competition. Republicans backed Noem’s bill, while Democrats viewed the legislation as highly discriminatory. “Passage of this bill would directly hurt children,” said Jennifer Phalen, whose transgenter daughter aspires to participate in school gymnastics. “It would direly harm my daughter and take away her freedom to participate in activities with her peers,” said Phalen, not buying the gender-based argument, having more to do with chromosomes and less to do with the social aspects of sports.
Parents of transgender children see only that the little boy-turned-girl or little girl-turned-boy want full recognition under the law, not about gender equality but about how it affects transgenders’ mentally. “As a parent, I don’t really care if she becomes an elite athlete, but I want her to have the experience of being on a team,” Phalen told the committee in emotional testimony. Phalen knows that transgenders represent about 0.35% of the population, knowing that there’s not enough of them to compete with fellow trangender athletes. Instead, transgender parents want their children to compete in their choses gender identities, in Phalen’s case her male child that identifies as a female. South Dakota becomes the 10th Republican state to ban boys from competing as transgender girls. Federal judges have protected the civil liberties of transgender athletes seeking recognition by the courts.
Transgender athletes cite a case of a University of Penn. Boy-turned-girl transgender athlete that’s dominated swimming performances at the University of Pennsylvania where she had a dominant performance over the last years. “Allowing males to compete destroys fair competition and athletic opportunities for girls,” said Rachel Ogalesky, the governor’s policy advisor told the committee. Similarly, gifted and trained males will always have physical advantages over females,” Oglesby said. “Allowing males to compete destroys fair competition and athletic opportunities for girls,” said Obgleby, Noem’s policy adviser. “Similarly, gifted and trained males will always have physical advantages over females,” arguing that trans-females-and-males don’t offer a level playing field for competition when it involves competition with female-and-male genders.
When it comes to the complexity of trans-athletes, it’s a matter of psychology, not whether or not biological males give a real advantage in competition with female-gender athletes. South Dakota’s high school activities association decides whether trans-athletes assures fair competition. Schools evaluate trans-athletes individually but recognize that state laws could violate federal anti-discrimination laws, preventing states from restricting trans-athletes. “This particular bill does nothing, does absolutely nothing as far as helping young people,” said Dianna Miller, representing South Dakota’s largest school districts. What it is is discriminatory, unfair, and it’s not necessary,” giving the more politically correct view of challenging trans-gender issues. What the bill does, whether admitted to or not, is prevent gender-assigned people from participating in the opposite sex athletic activity.
Whatever bill finally passes impacting transgender athletes, it’s going to be subject of Department of Justice discrimination lawsuits. Whether Noem likes it or not, there’s too much anti-discrimination legislation written into the federal registry, written to protect anyone with any differences. “This isn’t about an issues that’s really happening in South Dakota,” said Roger Tellenghuisen, representing Human Rights Campaign, an organization that advocates for LGBTQ people. “It’s a political statement—that all it is,” rejecting Noem’s idea that trans-gender athletes have an unfair advantage because of their biologic superiority when it comes to athletic competition. When it comes to civil rights groups, they’re no concerned about whether transgender athletes get an unfair advantage over competition. They’re concerned only about trans-gender rights to compete because they identify themselves as transgender people, regardless of biologic differences.
Noem hasn’t begun to face the legal challenges of the transgender community, knowing that there are plenty of anti-discrimination laws protecting the rights of transgenders, even though they’re 0.35% of the population. “To see her now coming out with a stronger bill, to see her championing this issue and making it her priority, we haven’t really see anything like that before with Republicans,” said Jon Schweppe, director of the conservative American Principles Project. Given the low percentages of transgenders in the population, it makes Noem’s legislation less significant than it’s worth. While there are certain conservatives that admire restricting transgender athletes, it opens the state to federal anti-discrimination lawsuits already part of federal law. Social conservative want their day in court but Noem can ill-afford endless lawsuits against all for a very few test cases.
