Give Kristi a Chance
2nd April 2021
Gov.Kristi Noem has been taking a lot of flak from the conservative punditry over her “veto” of South Dakota HB 1217 intended to protect girls’ and women’s sports from transgender athletes. I use veto in quotes because there are technical and procedural rules in South Dakota that either made Gov. Noem’s rejected “form and content” revisions a veto or the legislature’s inaction on them a veto. Be that as it may, South Dakota currently has no statute in place. I say currently because Gov. Noem has announced she will call a special session of the Legislature to resolve this. In the meantime the Governor has issued two executive orders to fill the gap.
Her objections were not to the substance of the bill but rather to its mechanics. They seem well-founded, and all of the hair-on-fire antics in the news misplaced.