The South Dakota Catholic Conference opposes SB 190, a bill that introduces the concepts “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” and “Two-Spirit” as statutory categories into South Dakota’s employment, business, education, and public accommodations laws. SB 190 does not propose to define this terminology. Every single human person, based on his or her innate dignity as a child of God, equally has a right to security, to have one’s basic needs met, and to be treated with compassion and respect. Yet to legally categorize people according to undefined or subjective traits, such as sexual appetites or internalized experience of identity, will have the effect of muting the universal worth borne by all men and women as a result of their God-given dignity, and our obligation to treat all fellow citizens with objective principles of justice. By sorting human persons according to politicized or ideologically-charged categories, SB 190 needlessly obscures the dignity of each individual person as a child of God.
Categories: 2021 Session