Anti-trans youth sports bill SB 46 in South Dakota
By Ava Piliang
All trans kids, closeted or not in the US have been fighting anti-trans bills for their entire lives. Over 63 anti-trans sports bills across 30 states. Despite all of the anti-trans laws that have been past, there have been no laws in any state that protect trans athletes. South Dakota is the most recent state to pass an anti-trans bill. Outlined this bill states that all trans women and girls assigned male at birth are completely banned from playing any interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural, or club athletic team, sport, or 5 athletic event that is sponsored or sanctioned by an accredited school, school district, and 6 activities association or organization, or an institution of higher education.
This means that regardless of how medically transitioned someone is they must play a sport on the team that aligns with the sex that they were given at birth. SB 46 also completely excludes intersex people as the bill states that biological sex is only male and female, despite close to 2% of the US population being intersex. SB 46 passed in South Dakota recently is extremely dangerous for trans people of all ages as it is effectively preventing trans women from participating in club and school-sanctioned sports because they would be unable to play sports with the gender that they identify with, being forced instead to play with the sex that they were assigned at birth, regardless if they are medically transitioned or not. This bill could also prevent trans people from coming out in the future as it prevents them from being able to play the sports that they love.
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