South Dakota’s GOP governor on Friday declined to sign a bill from lawmakers in her own party that would have banned transgender girls from participating in women’s high school sports.
In a statement Released on Twitter, Noem said she was sending the bill back to lawmakers for changes, indicating she felt the ban should not apply to college athletes.
“Unfortunately, as I have studied this legislation and consulted with legal experts in recent days, I have become concerned that the vague and overly broad language of this bill could have significant unintended consequences,” Noem wrote.
“I am also concerned that House Bill 1217’s approach is unrealistic in the context of peer athletics,” she added, writing that banning transgender athletes from collegiate sports would create conflict with national university athletics associations.
Republicans in the state legislature who backed the bill called Noem’s attempt to force changes to the law “inappropriate.”
“Lawmakers are the ones who make the laws and the governor signs them,” said Rep. Rhonda Milstead (R), who sponsored the bill, against the Sioux Falls Argus leader. “She’s pulling out the bill and writing a new law, and that’s not her job.”
As currently written, the bill would require students to submit a form verifying their age, biological sex, and lack of steroid use in order to qualify for high school athletic programs.
An analysis of the human rights campaign earlier this month found that lawmakers in more than half of the states in the union are currently considering bills that would somehow restrict access to sports or health care for transgender people.