Governor to meet transgender South Dakotans

PIERRE, S.D.- A group of transgender people and representatives from a Sioux Falls nonprofit are meeting with Gov. Dennis Daugaard to put faces to the transgender label.

The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.

Ashley Joubert-Gaddis is director of operations for the Center for Equality. She says the meeting is in response to Daugaard saying that he hasn't knowingly met a transgender person.

The Legislature has passed a bill that would require students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their sex at birth. Transgender students could request accommodation under the plan.

If Daugaard signs it, South Dakota would become the first state in the nation to pass such a law. The governor has not said whether he will sign it.

A spokeswoman says Daugaard has met with the bill's sponsors.

According to a Gayly report, Heather Smith, Executive Director, ACLU of South Dakota Lawmakers said, "Governor Daugaard should listen to his actual constituents and veto this bill and send a strong message that discrimination isn't a South Dakota value and there's simply no place for it in our schools, community, and state."

"With serious and complex issues like teacher pay and healthcare needing to be addressed this year, it is disturbing that this session so far has launched one of the worst attacks on vulnerable transgender children in the entire country," said Libby Skarin, Policy Director, ACLU of South Dakota.

"My son struggled with his identity until he was 18 years old,"  said Rebecca Dodds, parent of a transgender teenager. "I'm a protective parent, and I would have done anything to make his time in school bearable, but the truth is that he felt vulnerable and afraid.

"I'm asking South Dakota lawmakers to think of my son, who spent so much of his time at school living in fear. If he had been allowed to be himself in a supportive and accepting environment, maybe he wouldn't have been plagued by those feelings of fear and exclusion.

"Maybe the suicidal thoughts would not have troubled him so much.  Forcing schools to adhere to a policy that singles out transgender children like my son makes them more likely to experience harassment and violence in school."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

The Gayly- 2/22/2016 @ 11:49 AM CST