- South Dakota’s Republican government, Kristi Noem, is faltering in its support for new legislation due to pressure from groups in South Dakota, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.
- Noem recently said on March 8 that she was ‘excited’ to sign HB 1217, a bill banning male men from participating in women’s sports.
- The bill was sent to Noem’s desk days ago, but the governor suggested she not sign it.
After Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem expressed her excitement over the signing of a bill banning biological men from women’s sports, the Daily Caller News Foundation doubts.
Mention said as recently as March 8 that she was ‘excited’ to sign HB 1217, a bill that not only bans biological men from participating in women’s sports, but also states that there are only two biological sexes (men and women) and that there are ‘inherent’ ”Differences between men and women.
The bill was sent to Noem’s desk on March 10, but the governor has since suggested that she not sign it. (RELATED: Mississippi Becomes First State to Ban Women’s Transgender Students)
Noem’s office did not directly address the question of why she was hesitant in her support for the bill, but confirmed that the governor had not decided whether she would sign it.
“Governor Noem weighs another 106 pieces of legislation that need to be in place next Friday, and that’s one of them,” Noam’s communications director Ian Fury told the DCNF on Friday morning.
Screenshot, Twitter.
“We are still looking at it and I will probably come to a decision within the next two to three days,” Noem said in a Thursday interview with the Argus leader. “It’s a complicated bill, even because there are parts of it that are not so well written.”
The bill is one of many aimed at protecting women and children introduced so far in 2021. A survey conducted by Axios found that GOP 61 legislators have enacted legislation in at least 25 countries that criminalizes gender reassignment surgery for children or prevents biological men from participating in women’s sports.
The latest POLITICO / Morning Consult poll found that 53% of registered voters do not support biological men participating in women’s sports. (RELATED: 53% of Americans Support Trans-Athletes Ban Women’s Sports, Polling Programs)
If Noem decides to veto the bill, two-thirds of the House as well as the Senate will be required to vote for a ruling – and groups such as the Greater Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce and the Sioux Falls Sports Authority argue that the law can be negative. South Dakota’s economy affected.
When the North Carolina legislature passed a bill in 2016 banning local governments from requiring businesses to allow transgender people to use their preferred bathroom, dozens of events were canceled out of protest, such as a Bruce Springsteen show over the weekend .
“Some things are more important than a rock show, and this fight against prejudice and triviality – which happens while I’m writing – is one of them,” Springsteen said at the time. “It’s the strongest way to raise my voice as opposed to those who keep pushing us backwards instead of forwards.”
The American Principles Project encouraged Noem both publicly and privately to sign the bill and held talks with lawmakers in South Dakota on HB 1217. (RELATED: Psychiatric Journal Corrects Transgender Study, Now Says There Is No Benefit Of Mental Health Surgery)
Jon Schweppe, APP’s director of policy and government affairs, told the DCNF that he had begun hearing from lawmakers and policy organizations that Noem was under pressure not to sign the South Dakota group’s bill after she was fired on March 8. tweeted her support.
The governor is being put under pressure by the NCAA, the South Dakota Chamber of Commerce, and an Amazon plant in Sioux Falls, which is “quietly threatening” to leave the bill, the APP leader told the DCNF.
Schweppe refers to Noem’s comments to the Argus Leader and claims that “she is already a kind of tracker and is preparing the stage for a veto.”
“I hope she does not do that because she will ruin her political career,” Schweppe told the DCNF. “She is trying to become president or have a national profile.”
South Dakota Republican Rep. Rhonda Milstead, one of HB 1217’s sponsors, told the DCNF on Friday morning that opposition and pressure against the bill was “inevitable”, but that it might have been avoided if Noem had signed it as soon as it has been achieved. her desk.
“I think the reality of it is that if one stands up for the right thing, and it’s the right thing, the good will come out of it,” she said. ‘Those bullying tactics are not going to work if you get stuck. And that’s what it’s, bullying tactics. ”
Milstead speculates that Noem is making some language changes that she will need before signing the bill – and Milstead has argued that this is not Noem’s competence.
“She’s the executive, the legislature is the one to pass legislation,” Milstead said. So if she wants to change the language, it has nothing to do with style and form. It has everything to do with content, context. ”
“It’s not appropriate,” she added. “It really goes beyond the powers of the branch. This is not what the executive is for. ”
The bill is strongly supported by both Republican and faith-based groups in South Dakota, such as the South Dakota Catholic Conference and the Family Heritage Alliance Action.
“We encouraged her to stand strong and follow her signature,” Norman Woods, executive director of the Family Heritage Alliance Action, told the DCNF.
“We asked her to keep the line and protect women’s sports here in South Dakota,” he added.
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