Couldn't have said it better myself.
We have some real problems in South Dakota. This is not an exhaustive list, but from it, you’ll get the idea of the sorts of things we’re facing: Nursing homes are closing, leaving ill elderly and disabled folks with nowhere to go. People are going without medical care. Medical marijuana is not available to chronic pain sufferers and other sick people. Farm income is in free fall, and we can't grow a new crop because of the Reefer Madness bogeyman (i.e., the governor doesn’t want us to grow industrial hemp because DRUGS!!). Teacher pay sucks. Young people are leaving the state. We have serious substance abuse problems (remember, meth). Three of the nation's ten poorest counties are all in our state. Natives suffer continuing discrimination and unrelenting poverty. For starters.
Fortunately, the Legislature is in session every January and it is now January, so they can begin to address some of these problems. So what’s on their agenda?
(1) A bill to stop Daylight Saving Time in South Dakota (HB1085)
(2) A bill to remove irreconcilable differences from the list of grounds for divorce. That leaves the only permissible grounds as adultery, extreme cruelty, willful desertion, willful neglect, habitual intemperance, and criminal conviction resulting in incarceration. (Guess you'll have to badmouth Daddy to the kids before you can get a divorce in these here parts.) (HB1158)
(3) A bill to prohibit all of these: the issuance of marriage licenses to gay couples, class protections for gay people, the recognition that trans people exist, the change of gender classification on birth certificates, bans on conversion therapy, and drag queen story time in public schools and libraries (which is actually quite quaint in this particular litany of horrors). (HB1215)
(4) A resolution to invite Virginia gun owners to move to South Dakota. (Not making this up.) (SCR602)
(5) A bill making it illegal to provide any gender-affirming medical treatment to transgender children 16 or under, even with parental permission, and making doctors who provide such treatment subject to imprisonment. (The sponsor compared such treatments to Nazi medical experiments. Still not kidding. Started out with the age at 18 and the offence a felony, so there has been some modest progress, if you want to call it that. We should also note that in this state so fearful of "out of state" influence that we tried to ban it--until a court said, "No, you don't"--all but one person speaking in committee hearings in favor of this bill were from--you guessed it--out of state. Turns out it's OK when the foreigners are on your side.) (HB1057)
(6) A bill permitting parents to refuse consent for medical, psychiatric, psychological, or counseling care to a minor child "if the parent reasonably believes that the service would induce, confirm, or promote the child's belief that the child's gender is different from that which it was at birth or that the gender with which the child identifies is different from that which it was at birth." (SB93)
(7) A bill requiring school counselors, psychologists, and social workers to out a trans kid to the parents. (SB88)
(8) A bill banning surrogacy. (HB1096)
(9) A bill preventing cities from banning plastic bags and straws. (SB54)
(10) A bill to remove sales tax from guns and ammunition. (We do tax nonessentials like food and clothing.) (HB1078)
To the best of my knowledge, they are not currently entertaining bills dealing with most of the problems listed above. Can’t blame them, can you? I mean, with all this important stuff on their plate, who really has the time?
I wonder why so many of our kids leave and don't come back. Anyone???
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