Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 21, 2025 / 16:30 pm (CNA).
South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden signed three bills into law on Friday that he indicated reflect the values of the state, including one law that will prevent males from entering girls’ restrooms or locker rooms in any public school or public building.
Another law restricts access to obscene materials for minors in public libraries and public school libraries. The third clarifies the rights and obligations of the father of a child born to a mother to whom he is not married.
“South Dakota is a place where commonsense values remain common, and these bills reinforce that fact,” Rhoden, a Republican, said in a statement. “These bills promote strong families, safety in education, and freedom from the ‘woke’ agenda like what has happened in too many other places.”
The new law related to the sex-based separation of facilities requires that public schools and public buildings separate restrooms, locker rooms, and sleeping quarters on the basis of sex as defined by a person’s biological characteristics rather than self-asserted “gender identity.”
Under this law, men who self-identify as “women” will not be able to access protected spaces reserved for girls and women.
Any person who encounters someone of the opposite sex in a restroom or locker room can file a lawsuit against the public entity if the entity permitted the person to enter or failed to take any reasonable steps to prohibit the person from entering.
Lawsuits must be filed within two years of the violation.
Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Sara Beth Nolan said in a statement that “women and girls should not be forced to sacrifice their privacy and safety to activists pushing gender ideology.”
“Allowing men to invade girls’ spaces — including locker rooms, sleeping areas, or restrooms — rips away girls’ spaces,” Nolan added. “[This law] ensures that girls’ spaces in public schools and public buildings are not open to men and prioritizes privacy and safety for every South Dakota girl.”
The South Dakota action mirrors federal efforts from President Donald Trump’s administration to combat gender ideology and prevent men from accessing women’s and girls’ spaces.
Trump signed an executive order to clarify that within federal regulations, there are two sexes that are determined by biological characteristics. Another order separated male and female sports, restrooms, and other facilities on the basis of biological sex in educational institutions that receive federal funding.
Many of Trump’s executive orders have been challenged in court and are being held up by judges.
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Hooray! No matter what anyone thinks of Pres. Donald Trump, it is his election to the Presidency that gave state leaders the power to finally establish common-sense laws that protect girls and women.
I think that those who are trying, often with good intentions, to “protect the preference” of men and women who experience gender dysphoria, should instead advocate legitimate research into what has caused the gender confusion and find humane and effective therapies to correct the situations, eliminate the confusion and anguish, and give peace to the sufferers about their sexuality.
As someone who experiences inappropriate desire for eating too much junk food, I don’t want someone to tell me that, ‘You’re OK, you’re just a big, beautiful woman and it’s all the purveyors of thinness who are wrong!”, I would rather be helped with establishing better eating patterns and learning how to resist unhealthy cravings.” This approach will lead to health and hopefully a longer life, while the “You’re beautiful just the way you are!” approach will eventually result in disability, disease, and an early death!
Thank you Sharon, I appreciate your compassionate response. 💖 I too am for the protection of women and girls. But id like to advocate for some transwomen only because of this. We are compassionate Christians called to love one another. Regardless of how we feel about the ethics or if we agree with their ideology… many of These trans are often young people who are bullied horribly and often killed or unalive themselves. They are the targets of violence from men even more than we as ordinary women are, and experience SA, abuse, bigotry, just as we women do. They are still vulnerable young people. Science has studied the brains of gay men and gender non conforming men and found them to have the same brain patterns as a woman. So in many cases even if we don’t see them as a woman, they “feel” like a woman if that makes sense. And that still makes them vulnerable to violence. We are in a crisis of male violence against women. However statistically, pretty much none of that is from trans men or gay men. It’s from straight men. I respect your opinions on trans especially bc I understand that ppl have been radicalized by what I respectfully would call “propaganda”. But I understand the right wing Christian church agenda and they have very specific institutions regarding gender that they want to keep in place. That’s fine. I don’t disagree at all with keeping men out of women’s bathrooms! But I’ve never had a man come into the ladies room personally. And I think that a man with bad intentions would just go in anyway regardless of the rules. If he wants to commit violence he’s not looking to do anything legal anyway. But I do just want to mention that I understand ppl think trans is a mental illness. I understand why they think that, i thought that myself. But then, I’m trying to figure this out, because – trans aka ppl who identify with Opposing gender have been around since ancient times. It’s like, 10 percent of ppl are born gay or something (as far as we know). Even in Native American societies they were here. They lived in harmony with everyone- they didn’t need surgery or hormones bc they were accepted for who they were. until white Christian colonists murdered them for being sinful. I honestly felt that was wrong to do but that’s just me . The ones that promised to conform ended up k1llimg themselves. So I’m torn about this bc if they had just left them alone it would have avoided the suffering. I wonder if bc of our society that makes trouble for them. And maybe they would need surgery of hormones of our society accepted them fully as their own thing. In ancient societies there could be many genders. Either way, it’s such a tiny percentage of the population that doesn’t hurt anyone. They would have you believe they are knocking on your door trying to multilateral your children but it’s just not true. How many trans ppl are trying to ruin your life or your friends families? I know this is unpopular but as a Christian I just wish we would leave them alone unless they are doing something criminal. And give them support so that they can just exist… I’m not for violence and too many of them are being murdered, and it’s always by Christians sadly, because of the rhetoric that they shouldn’t be allowed to “exist”. They are here to stay whether we like it or not! We can’t murder them all so what do we do? Accept and love them, I think. But that’s just my humble opinion. Love to you my sister in Christ 💖