22-02-2025
Sioux Falls residents protest 'anti-trans' HB 1259, which would segregate restrooms by sex
More than two dozen people rallied in Sioux Falls on Saturday morning in protest of House Bill 1259, which would segregate restrooms in state-owned facilities such as the Capitol, prisons, university buildings and public schools by sex assigned at birth.
HB 1259 passed in the South Dakota House of Representatives in Pierre on Wednesday afternoon on a 49-21 vote and is awaiting a hearing in the Senate State Affairs committee.
Similar legislation has come before the South Dakota Legislature at least five different times — once in 2016 and 2017, twice in 2018 and once in 2022 — but none have become law.
More: South Dakota House votes 49-21 to segregate bathrooms by sex assigned at birth
Everett Palmer, a legislative intern with the Transformation Project Advocacy Network and an organizer for the rally, said HB 1259 targets transgender people of all ages and said it's important to 'be present and fight these bills.' He said it would make transgender people 'visible and vulnerable,' and that they have a constitutional right to be 'free from discrimination.'
Frida Ramirez, a Sioux Falls resident, said the bill would affect people she knows, and said they're 'losing the same rights we have, and it just isn't fair.'
Everett Smith, 18, a senior at Jefferson High School and the Queer & Trans Liberation Committee Leader for South Dakota Youth Activism, said the only thing the 'discriminatory' bill would do is 'put trans kids and adults in harm's way.' It's already difficult enough for trans people to use the bathroom, and the bill would 'put trans children at a higher risk than they already are," Smith said.
From 2021: 'We are your neighbors': How does it feel to be transgender or nonbinary in South Dakota?
The rally was held outside of and before a legislative coffee meeting or 'cracker barrel,' an event traditionally held on weekends around the state during the legislative session that gives constituents a chance to ask their legislators questions about bills they voted on in Pierre the week(s) prior.
Saturday's event was for legislators from the Sioux Falls area and was held at Southeast Technical College and sponsored by the nonpartisan League of Women Voters and other local organizations.
League member and event moderator Betty Oldenkamp noted legislators from Districts 9-15 were invited to attend, but not all of them came to Saturday's meeting.
Only the three lawmakers from District 15 — Democrats Sen. Jamie Smith, and Reps. Eric Muckey and Kadyn Wittman — attended. Muckey and Wittman both voted against the bill.
She said some of them may have legitimate reasons for not showing up, and added they could attend the next coffee meeting at 10 a.m. March 1 at STC.
'I'm going to ask that you join me in not going down that rabbit hole of conjecture and conspiracy theories as to why the remaining legislators are not attending,' Oldenkamp said. 'Let's give them the benefit of the doubt.'
District 9, which is west of Interstate 29 and reaches out to Hartford, includes Sen. Joy Hohn, R-Hartford, and Reps. Tesa Schwans, R-Hartford, and Bethany Soye, R-Sioux Falls. Both Schwans and Soye voted in favor of HB 1259 in the House.
District 10, which covers the northeast parts of Sioux Falls, includes Democrats Sen. Liz Larson and Rep. Erin Healy, and Republican Rep. Bobbi Andera. Andera voted in favor of, and Healy voted against, HB 1259 in the House.
District 11, which covers a part of Minnehaha County west of Interstate 29 and south of 12th Street, includes Republicans Sen. Chris Karr and Reps. Brian Mulder and Keri Weems. Both Mulder and Weems voted in favor of HB 1259 in the House.
District 12, which spans Minnehaha and Lincoln counties from south of 18th Street in central Sioux Falls past 85th Street, includes Republicans Sen. Arch Beal and Reps. Amber Arlint and Greg Jamison. Both Arlint and Jamison voted in favor of HB 1259 in the House.
District 13, which spans across Minnehaha and Lincoln counties mostly from the intersection of 33rd Street and Minnesota Avenue southward, is represented by Republicans Sen. Sue Peterson and Reps. John Hughes and Jack Kolbeck. Hughes voted in favor of, and Kolbeck voted against, HB 1259 in the House.
District 14, which covers Minnehaha County in the southeastern part of Sioux Falls, is represented by Republicans Sen. Larry Zikmund and Reps. Tony Kayser and Taylor Rehfeldt. Both Kayser and Rehfeldt voted in favor of HB 1259 in the House.
The lawmakers answered more than a dozen questions on bills — ranging from education savings accounts and libraries, to funding a new prison and child care — from an audience of more than 75 constituents who wrote questions down on postcards for the moderator to read.
On HB 1259, when asked about how the bill would be enforced, if there was recourse for people falsely accused of being transgender, and if the bill was directed at 'furthering control of women's bodies, trans or cis,' Wittman said she also had those same questions.
She said at the rally, and again in response to the question, that 'this was a tough week' as she and legislators voted on 'two anti-trans bills in one day,' referring to HB 1259 and House Bill 1260, which would prevent transgender South Dakotans from getting a birth certificate or driver's license that accurately reflects their gender and keeps only their sex assigned at birth on those documents. HB 1260 failed a vote on Wednesday and failed to be reconsidered on Thursday.
'We're heading down a dangerous road' with HB 1259, Wittman said.
If the bill had been about 'protecting women and girls,' then 'maybe we would have passed ending child marriage earlier this week,' she said, referring to Senate Bill 156. The bill would have increased the minimum age for marriage from 16 with a parent's consent, to 18.
'I do firmly believe that this is a further attack on our trans community members and bodily autonomy as a whole in South Dakota,' she said. 'And, it's just weird. I'm sorry, this is so weird. Who cares what bathroom somebody wants to use? … This is a thinly veiled attempt to further harm a vulnerable group of people, single them out and make them feel othered.'
More: A decade of hate: How South Dakota's anti-LGBTQ+ bills have grown in the last 10 years
Muckey said Wittman 'sealed the deal' for 15 representatives on the other side of the aisle to vote against HB 1259. He said the House Democratic caucus 'fought this very hard.'
'We had a very specific strategy that we tried to unveil, and it actually brought people along with us,' he explained. He said as an appropriator, he sees HB 1259 as a 'bad bill' because it 'subjects every single subdivision of state government to lawsuits that cost you as taxpayers.'
As a former teacher and a teacher of students who are transgender, Smith said, 'Schools did a great job of managing this issue without any laws and making people feel safe, and their dignity kept in place.'
He said HB 1259 is another example of legislators making laws that don't increase people's freedom, and he added that he admired his friends in the transgender community for their bravery in standing up to the bill.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux Falls residents protest HB 1259, the 'anti-trans' bathroom bill
