voted down the bill, which would keep trans girls and women out of sports designated for females at the state’s schools. Some senators expressed concerns that it would create a bureaucratic nightmare with gender documentation and lead to court challenges.
One Republican senator even questioned the need for such legislation, given the small number of trans athletes.But backers of the measure voted Monday to open debate on it anyway, and the full Senate ended up passing it by a vote of 20-15, the Grand Forks Herald reports.
The South Dakota House had OK’d the bill in February. The legislation’s supporters claimed to be defending and protecting women’s sports, and Noem took the same approach in a tweet shortly after it passed.