A Home committee tabled one invoice coping with “drag exhibits” and handed one other this morning (Feb. 13, 2023).
The Home State Affairs Committee handed HB 1116, which disallows using faculty district, state college, or state property for use in internet hosting lewd or lascivious content material. The invoice’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Chris Karr from Sioux Falls, stated the invoice provides the Board of Regents and different public faculty officers the authority to ban lewd and lascivious occasions.
Invoice supporter, Florence Thompson with South Dakotan Residents for Liberty, stated that the “drag exhibits” demean girls. She stated colleges would by no means enable performers in blackface or performances that demean Native People.
Dianna Miller, a lobbyist for the Massive College Group, opposed the invoice. She stated the invoice “has rather a lot to do with notion.”
Garrett Satterlee, an SDSU scholar, stated the restrictions might endanger occasions like Hobo Day and theater productions.
HB 1116 handed on an 11 to 1 vote.
The committee tabled HB 1125, which might outlaw “drag present” performances which are dangerous to minors. That invoice defines “drag efficiency” as: “…[S]inging, talking, dancing, appearing, simulation, or pantomiming, the place a performer, in a lewd and lascivious method, and within the presence of others, displays a gender id that’s totally different from the performer’s organic intercourse by means of using clothes, make-up, or different bodily markers….”
The movement to favorably cross the invoice failed on a 6 to six vote, with Democratic Rep. Oren Lesmeister of Parade excused. The committee then voted 7 to five to desk the invoice, which suggests it will possibly nonetheless be thought of.
A “drag present” occasion at SDSU final fall prompted the 2 measures.
(The South Dakota Broadcasters Affiliation contributed to this story.)