South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster Signs Anti-Trans Sports Bill
tweet Tuesday.The Republican governor added, “It’s common sense, boys should play [boys'] sports and girls should play [girls'] sports.”Local LGBTQ+ advocates called out the governor for signing the bill.
It’s a bill that advocates have been pushing back against for two years, says Ivy Hill, executive director of the South Carolina-based organization Gender Benders and community health program director at the Campaign for Southern Equality.“It is clear to me that this is unconstitutional, and we're not going to stop fighting just because the governor signed it,” Hill says.
They added that there are already attorneys ready to sue over the law.Hill tells The Advocate they estimate the bill has been delayed more than 10 times.
However, this time around, they say, lawmakers pushed the legislation through.“It's a really terrible message that lawmakers have been sending to our youth and now the governor is also standing behind it,” Hill says. “We're going to continue to do everything that we can to protect trans youth.”While Hill says the passing and signing of the bill has been “disheartening,” they explain that there has still been strong opposition to the bill.“If there's anything that really gives me hope about the situation, it is just the incredible way that the community has come together and showed up at the Statehouse to testify, to send letters to legislators, to engage in creative resistance, all these things over and over and over again,” they tell The Advocate. “I also feel like we are doing a lot to build political power in the LGBT community in South Carolina and that's not going to stop.”To trans youth in South Carolina and across the country, Hill says, “You should not have to be advocating for your humanity.
