Fairness in Women’s Sports
By: Governor Kristi Noem
March 26, 2021
Everyone knows that I am willing to fight for what I believe in. Some have even accused me of fighting too much! And one fight that I’ve taken on for years is fairness in women’s sports. And it’s a very simple fight: only girls should play girls’ sports.
This is very personal for me. I’ve been a 15-year-old girl in a locker room. Thankfully, I never had to worry about having a boy in that locker room next to me. My daughters, Kassidy and Kennedy, both played sports in college. If my girls had been playing against men, their ability to compete would have been dramatically limited.
Kassidy is pregnant with a baby girl right now. I want that baby – my granddaughter – to have the same opportunities that I had and that my daughters had.
And it’s a fight that I’ve taken on in the past. When the federal government tried to force boys and girls to compete against each other in 4-H rodeo, I stood up to protect fairness. Other leaders stayed out of that fight. But we won. We protected fairness in rodeo.
When we take on these important fights, we have to do so in a smart way. Throughout the COVID pandemic, I always made sure that I knew what my authorities were, and what they were not. We have to fight these important battles in smart ways, based on the authorities that we do have. We have to take actions that actually do good for the people of South Dakota, not just pick fights that feel good.
We have to do this right. If we lose, we could set back protections for our girls. And that’s not what anybody wants.
We are going to continue to protect women’s sports in South Dakota. We’re working to protect them at the K-12 level. And we’re building a coalition to take on the NCAA so that we can ensure protections at the collegiate level as well. To join that coalition, you can go to DefendTitleIXnow.com and sign our compact.
Again, the issue is very simple: only girls should play girls’ sports. Let’s take on this fight in a way that we can win, and let’s keep working together to build a coalition to make sure that the NCAA protects fairness as well.
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She is acting like a Democrat.
I am for it before I am against it.
She sends back a style or form Veto which nobody thinks comports with what our style or form Veto actually is— except expert constitutional scholars she won’t identify. Then she won’t even acknowledge that it is a veto, come on man!
Then instead of a new law or signing the proposed one she has a feel good measure— website and pledges.
How any Republican is not ashamed of this is beyond me as a Republican.
I think the next time the Legislature says they are a co-equal branch and she needs to let them do their job, I hope she reminds them their incompetence on this bill.
I am 100% for the stated intent of this bill and believed the sponsors drafted a bill limited to protecting girls competitive balance. And then I read it.
no, Democrats love to use government to force a private organization to rewrite their rules and regulations.
The NCAA is a private organization.
They can do what they want, even if it results in a number of colleges, students and alumni creating a different organization with different rules and regulations.
If you really want to see action on this, tell the Board of Regents to tell the NCAA our state colleges and universities are leaving. Bye, Felicia!
You know Noem, Chris Evert made a complaint along time ago, that is, if they allowed
Dr. Renee Richard’s to play in womens tennis a whole bunch of the lesser men might decide to switch sexes and compete in the women’s also. That was as stupid then as it is now, although it’s still funny. You aren’t protecting anyone, in fact conservatives like yourself have always fought against Title IX so who do women athletneed protection from?
Of all the stupid arguments which rivals the poor drafting of this bill, this is it. It is uninformed and it is bigoted. And it almost inspires me to want passage of the bill just because it is slightly more intelligent.
The Governor writes: “This is very personal for me. I’ve been a 15-year-old girl in a locker room. Thankfully, I never had to worry about having a boy in that locker room next to me.”
Nobody does, Kristi. There isn’t a single case in the state… and you know it.
Elk at 5:24… President Biden has committed to “guaranteeing transgender students have access to facilities based on their gender identity” and to “restore transgender students’ access to sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms in accordance with their gender identity.”
Must be a whole lot of “nobodies” in the world to merit such federal attention.
my public school gym teachers were lesbians; very butch. I don’t know about Kristi’s experience but when they announced they had to look at us coming out of the showers to prove we had taken them, it was creepy.
I went off to a private school where the gym teachers were also lesbians but didn’t feel the need to watch us take showers.
Anne at 10:32… Yep, creepy. I never liked it when one of the male coaches showered with us teen athletes, when he had his own shower in his office.
No, there is not a single case in South Dakota… yet. There has been movement to allow for boys in girls’ locker rooms in Illinois. Last October, an appeals court in Minnesota ruled that schools MUST allow kids who claim to be of the opposite sex to use the locker room they identified with. In this cases it was a girl who claimed to be a boy. When I was in Aberdeen kids who were confused as to their sex were allowed to use a special rest room. At least that made some sense. It is happening in this country and it is better to be prepared for it rather than react to it. BTW, tell the girls in Connecticut who lost to two mediocre boys track “athletes” who competed as female and set state records. Several girls lost scholarships because of that unfair competition.
So this happens,
No more separate restrooms for boys and girls, with rows of feet-showing stalls. The North Kansas City school district is going fully gender neutral at two new elementary schools, opening on Wednesday [August 15], as well as in a few renovated restrooms in North Kansas City High School and the sixth-grade centers.
Then eventually this happens,
an alleged sexual assault case in a “gender-neutral” bathroom at a Wisconsin high school. The gender-neutral bathroom has been closed as a result. Austin Sauer, 18, of Rhinelander High School was arrested Thursday for fourth-degree sexual assault, child enticement and exposing his genitals to a child in the school’s bathroom, according to WAOW News.
Nothing to see here. –elk
“A political leader who seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument.”
Demagogue
Oxford Dictionary
Has Senator Thune, Senator Rounds or Rep Johnson signed or openly supported Gov. Noem’s Coalition? If I sign the coalition what has been accomplished? How do we actually win or help by joining the coalition?
Gov. Noem can make the claims that we don’t support her, that conservative organizations should support her – if they really want to fight to win, but Dan Bongino nailed it when he said you backed down and sold out here. We’re tired of the approach that we’ll win the war later. Stand on principle.
Anonymous at 6:15… The Left is always happy to win gradually, a bite at a time. It does seem hopeless at times to oppose them. Conservatives resist, but the Left are relentless pushing their destructive agenda through the courts and bureaucracies. Frankly, I’m amazed conservative ideas have done as well as they have for so long.
Tick tock, tick tock.
There are 2 trains of thought on how to achieve this goal.
One is damn the torpedoes and get sued and lose the summit league championship hosting. But by golly we won’t stand for it!
The second is work with other states and legal experts to box out the NCAA and ultimately win this in the courts.
This is not a fight a couple of states are going to win alone. Thankfully it is not a problem yet in SD
And it it won’t be until a few cases pop up that creates a challenge. I remember Tom Daschle arguing against a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage because it was already in law.
Personally I think this will be a global issue because the olympics will be dealing with this on a larger scale and I don’t see countries coming together to support this.
Matthew 6:24
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
That rules out any trumpie, although he is the new God right?