While other states have been slowly chipping away at LGBTQ rights little by little over the past few years, South Dakota has decided to do it all in one fell swoop.
Republican lawmakers in the Mouth Rushmore State just introduced HB 1215, which opponents say is the most damaging, most comprehensive, most retrogressive anti-LGBTQ bill in history.
Rep. Tony Randolph, a Republican from Rapid City who holds a 100% rating with the antigay hate group Family Heritage Alliance, introduced the bill last Thursday. Here’s what it aims to do:
The state may not enforce, endorse, or favor policies that:
(1) Permit any form of marriage that does not involve a man and a woman;
(2) Appropriate benefits to persons who enter a marriage other than a marriage involving a man and a woman;
(3) Permit counties to issue marriage licenses to persons other than for a marriage involving a man and a woman;
(4) Treat sexual orientation as a suspect class or as a basis of prohibited discrimination;
(5) Recognize a person’s belief that that person was born a gender that does not accord with the biological sex of the person as determined by that person’s anatomy at birth;
(6) Appropriate tax dollars to pay for sex change operations;
(7) Ban conversion therapy. Under this subdivision, conversion therapy, means a therapeutic practice in which a licensed medical professional, acting under authorized consent, assists a client in the goal or realigning the client’s sexual preference to prefer members of the opposite sex who have corresponding reproductive anatomy;
(8) Permit public libraries or public schools in the state to partner with nonsecular organizations to promote, host, sponsor, favor, or endorse drag queen storytime;
(9) Mandate pronoun changes;
(10) Condone or affirm homosexual, transgender, zoophilia, objectophilia, polygamy, or sexual orientation doctrines; and
(11) Permit a person to change the sex on a birth certificate to a sex that does not accord with that person’s anatomy at birth.
We know that’s lot to unpack, so just to summarize: The bill wants the state to stop recognizing same-sex marriage, strip away all nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people, refuse the existence of transgender, gender fluid, and nonbinary people, ban conversation therapy bans, and outlaw drag queen story hours.
Oh, and on top of that, it groups homosexuality in with zoophilia and objectophilia.
So, basically, Republicans want to prohibit anything that might make LGBTQ people’s lives easier, safer, healthier, or happier.
The ACLU of South Dakota put out a statement condemning the HB 1215:
This bill is further proof that some South Dakota legislators remain committed to discriminating against LGBTQ people and their families. South Dakota lawmakers cannot defy the U.S. Supreme Court based on their extreme personal views.
The bill comes just two weeks after lawmakers in South Dakota introduced another bill that aims to make it a illegal for healthcare providers to offer gender-affirming care to minors. If passed, any medical professionals who provide transgender children with puberty blockers, hormones, or any other other transition-related care would be felons and could face up to 10 years in prison.
Did we mention South Dakota’s state legislature has a total of 89 Republicans and 16 Democrats?
Related: Tennessee just snuck through a law to chip away at marriage equality and hardly anyone noticed
Cam
Republicans are bigots.
Den
It is only fair to say that “many and perhaps most” republicans are bigots.
For the others it is definitely fair to say they seem unable to critically evaluate the reasons for their continued party membership.
djmcgamester
“Some” Republicans are bigots. They aren’t all. I know a significant number of Republicans (I live in a red area of a blue state) who are not bothered in the least by gays nor wish to take away our rights. “Some of my best friends are Republicans.” I am not Republican but sweeping judgments don’t serve us.
charlieeod74
Finally the evangelical christofascists have a state they can call their own. Now if we could get all of those conservative Christians to move there the USA would be a great place to live!
Prax07
Get them all to move there, then drop a few nukes on the state, I’d be cool with that.
IAMSONICE
What filth. I bet they are all inbreds and child molesters.
fur_hunter
I wish every gay person had the ability to LEAVE that MORONIC state. That way those IMBECILES would find out that ALL their favorite police, firemen, doctors, nurses, waiters, managers, lawyers, mechanics, clerks, bankers, and SO many more occupations……..WOULD BE GONE!!!!! And they would be left with straights who have NO idea how to operate in the servicing industries. This makes me PUKE. I hope all those proposing the bill find out one of their children is gay and walks away from them, giving them the finger. Yeah.
Den
Waiting for the usual suspects to show up and:
1. couch this in terms of “states rights”, and the removal of “special rights” and
2. accuse those that oppose this as being “intolerant of other opinions”
soonersteve88
The marriage portions of this bill would be struck down by any federal court, even the most conservative, because it so clearly conflicts with existing case law and supreme Court rulings on the subject. This bill, if it passes, will never be enforced because there will be immediate filings in district court for an injunction, which will be granted by any federal judge, preventing the marriage portions from taking effect until the court eventually rules those portions unconstitutional.
The other sections are up for grabs, given the lack of federal laws or local district court rulings contrary to the intent of the bill. Most likely the non-marriage parts of the bill will make it to at least the appellate court and be judged individually. Some may go into effect.
Ultimately the more sensible legislators in both parties will prevent the bill from passing, or the governor will veto the bill, under immense pressure from local citizens and interest groups, potentially even from the state Attorney General. The argument will be that the state can’t afford the costs of a prolonged campaign in federal court, when it’s certain that the most important part of the legislation will be struck down.
Cooler heads will prevail, they won’t lock themselves into a fight they won’t win and can’t afford. Maybe a narrower bill which doesn’t address marriage will be put forward instead but marriage is safe in South Dakota.
Den
Stare decisis is a suggestion, not a binding rule.
There are several supreme court decisions that have been revisited and overturned by future cases, as plessy v furgason was overturned by brown v bd of ed.
The Christian right formulated their attack plans as soon as Trump was elected and began to implement as soon as he began appointing judges to federal courts.
It is naive to think our gains in civil rights and protections are not under attack as vigorously as women’s reproductive rights are.
djmcgamester
South Dakota can try this but they have to first overcome federal law.