A Small Victory

Sometimes I am amazed for what bills pass and what bills get defeated. Last week I wrote about a bill in South Dakota, House Bill 1108 proposed a simple ban on any instruction of “gender identity or gender expression” from kindergarten through seventh-grade. But there is another bill that prohibits parents from withholding treatment for their trans children.

South Dakota lawmakers defeat bill giving parents right to deny transgender treatment
Sioux Falls Argus Leader
By Lisa Kaczke,
February 7, 2019

PIERRE — Legislation was defeated to codify a parent's right to deny medical treatment for their child if it encourages the child's belief that their gender identity differs from their biological sex.

Supporters argued that parents know what is in their child's best interest because they know their children best. But opponents countered with the argument that parents already have the right to decline medical treatment for their child, and the bill is intended to discriminate against transgender children.

The House Health and Human Services Committee passed in a 10-3 vote to defer the bill to the 41st day, effectively killing it, after a motion to pass the bill failed in a 5-8 vote.

From the article it is not clear if the bill also bans conversion therapy, from my reading it will not. It only prohibits parents from doing nothing.