South Dakota state Senate passes transgender bathroom bill

The South Dakota state Senate cleared a bill, 20 to 15, on Tuesday that would prevent transgender students from using bathrooms and other facilities that correspond with their gender identity.

If the bill is signed by Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R), South Dakota will become the first state in the U.S. that requires transgender students to use bathrooms and other facilities based on their "chromosome and anatomy" at birth, Time reports. The bill was passed in the state House earlier this month, in a vote of 58 to 10, and its sponsor, state Rep. Fred Deutsch, said during committee testimony that it protects "bodily privacy rights" of "biologic boys and girls." Transgender students will have the option of using alternate accommodations, he said, but the bill does not disclose what those accommodations would be.

Civil rights groups say this is misguided, with the ACLU South Dakota policy director Libby Skarin telling Time the bill "causes actual harm to transgender students, an already vulnerable population. It singles out and targets them and attempts to isolate them, in a way that is really truly hurtful and discriminatory."

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