PIERRE, SD (KELO AM) South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard (R) opposes the transgender- school privacy bill filed this week in the 2017 State Legislature.
The bill in the State Senate would require transgender students to use school locker rooms and shower rooms based on their biological sex. Separate accomodations would be made under special circumstances. Unlike the bill Governor Daugaard vetoed last year, this legislation does not include bathrooms.
Daugaard threatens a veto of this new bill if it is approved by the legislature because he feels such privacy concerns can be handled by local school districts.
"I haven't heard one incidence of a problem in this area....not one," said Daugaard at a Thursday new conference in Pierre. Daugaard believes that just a fraction of South Dakota students go out for sports and since only a "tiny fraction" of students are transgender, there really isn't a problem that needs a legislative solution.