South Dakotans should not be forced to carry pregnancies against their will, but Gov. Kristi Noem’s proposed legislation would do exactly that, depriving them of the ability to make decisions about their body and future.

Senate Bill 46 is not about leveling the playing field for student athletes. It’s about erasing and excluding trans people from participation in all aspects of public life.

Politicians and state agencies should not insert themselves into the doctor-patient relationship.

Senate Bill 46 attempts to solve a problem that does not exist while slamming the door shut for transgender student athletes to fully participate in their school communities.

The ACLU of South Dakota will be monitoring a wide variety of bills and will focus on three main issue areas: abortion access and reproductive freedom, defending free speech and opposing classroom censorship, and LGBTQ+ and Two Spirit equality.

With serious issues like education funding, workforce housing, childcare, criminal justice reform, and tenuous state-tribal relations, it’s disturbing that some legislators keep coming back to the same discriminatory issues year after year.

Whether you’re for a specific bill or against it, there’s plenty of work to do, calls to make, letters to write, legislative coffees and cracker barrels to attend.

Instead of encouraging learning, Gov. Noem’s proposed legislation effectively gags educators and students from talking about issues of the most profound national importance, such as the impact of systemic racism and sexism in our society.

Gov. Noem's draft legislation violates both the United States Constitution and Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, which protects all students – including those who are transgender – from discrimination based on sex.