A bill banning certain medical procedures and hormones for transgender children, as well as prescribing puberty blockers has failed.
The bill has garnered national attention, and similar legislation appears in other states.
There was standing room only for the Senate Health and Human Services committee hearing on House Bill 1057. The committee rejected the proposal 5 to 2.
Quinncy Parke is a 17-year-old from Sioux Falls who testified against the bill. They say they’re going to keep fighting bills like this as long as they keep getting introduced.
“I want to keep talking to people, I want to keep advocating,” Parke says. “I hope that in the future I can do this again with other bills—hopefully not the same bill. But at the same time, I hope I don’t have to. I hope that these bills stop this year. I know that they probably won’t because they never seem to. But, I can still have that hope.”
The bill changed several times since it was introduced. The penalty was originally a felony. It ultimately got reduced to a civil penalty. Prime sponsor Republican Fred Deutsch says he made those changes because he was open to concerns lawmakers had with the bill.
Deutsch says the hearing on his bill when exactly as he thought it would.
“Went exactly as I thought. Completely anticipated. Not much more to say,” Deutsch says.
Deutsch says the debate over this bill isn’t over. He says there’s more process in South Dakota, and that this bill is only one “skirmish.” Deutsch says the senate could smoke out the bill -- a process of reviving rejected legislation to a chamber floor. However, he says it’s not his intention to convince senators to do so.