Kristi Noem touts new bill to ‘ensure that girls play girls' sports, boys play boys' sports’

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) will propose a new bill to the state legislature in January to protect girls' sports that fixes the legal issues she says marred a previous bill addressing the issue that she vetoed earlier this year. 

The bill is designed to prevent transgender girls, who are biological boys taking steroids to be more feminine, from playing in girls' sports because of the unfair physical advantage they would have over the girls. 

Noem told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Friday's episode that the first bill "allowed people to go after and sue people for any kind of steroid or drug use, yet the drugs were not defined in statute," meaning that a child playing on a football team who uses an inhaler for asthma could be considered as taking a steroid. 

"Therefore, any child who did not make the football team that year could sue that student who was using inhalers and the entire team and the school district for unlimited damages and emotional damages, as well," Noem said. 

The first, flawed bill linked K-12 and college sports together in the same bill, Noem explained, which was especially troublesome given the bill's vulnerability to legal challenge. 

"So by having the K-12 system tied to the collegiate system in one bill that would be in court while it was being in court litigated and decided in the judicial system, I couldn't protect girls' sports in my public schools," she said. 

Noem explained that the reason she signed an executive order when she vetoed the original bill was so she could still protect girls' sports. The new bill codifies her executive order into law "so that it will be there long-term and it'll ensure that girls play girls' sports, boys play boys' sports, and that there is a fairness and opportunity for every little girl in South Dakota that wants to grow up and compete."