South Dakota's House just passed a bill that would ban teachers from discussing gender dysphoria in schools, essentially preventing school staff from giving help to children who may be struggling with their gender identity.
This is incredibly dangerous as children who are experiencing gender dysphoria may develop anxiety, depression and other problems as a result of not being able to get the help they need to process their feelings and thereby live gender aligned.
We the undersigned call on South Dakota's Governor Kristi Noem to categorically reject this legislation for being discriminatory and dangerous!
This bill assumes that if a teacher mentions gender dysphoria, students will spontaneously develop the condition. This is patently false. In fact, talking about gender dysphoria will only help to normalize the experience and let students going through it know that they are not alone. This bill serves no other purpose than to make life harder for some students and raise their risk of serious health issues and that's just plain cruel.
