The South Dakota Catholic Conference supports passage of House Bill 1260, an act to ensure the accuracy of vital records and personal identification documents issued by the state.
While South Dakota law currently prescribes that a state-issued birth certificate is to record a person’s biological sex as observed following birth, some courts have been ordering later modifications to the official documents for both adults and children, based on a person’s internal sense of gender in conflict with their sex. The underlying ideology, often referred to as “gender theory,” argues that a person’s gender may contradict their sex, such that they “are,” in their very essence, the opposite gender or no gender at all.
With deep compassion for the experience of suffering that may mark this interior conflict, the Church firmly insists on the dignity of all human persons as created and loved by God, and further expresses special affection for the marginalized and suffering. We are called to give love, compassion, and respect to all persons, including those experiencing gender dysphoria or influenced by gender theory.
At the same time, the Church insists that true compassion and love are inseparable from the truth of our physical bodies. Contradictions of this truth do not belong in state-issued vital records or other official documents. HB 1260 recognizes the importance of ensuring official records remain consistent with practical reason and the natural law.