2,044 events on record Subscribe September 10, 2026
Standing Record home The Standing Record A non-partisan record of US democratic norms —
and the events that erode them.

South Dakota Gov. Noem signed SB 46, barring transgender athletes from female school and college sports

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem signed SB 46, "An Act to protect fairness in women's sports," on February 3, 2022, after it passed both chambers of the legislature in late January. The law requires K-12, intramural, club, and college athletic teams sponsored or sanctioned by an accredited school, school district, activities association, or the state Board of Regents or Board of Technical Education to be designated by biological sex, barring transgender girls and women from competing on female teams. South Dakota was the first state to enact such a law in 2022, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

Jurisdiction
South Dakota
Location
Pierre, South Dakota

Abuses documented

Actors

On February 3, 2022, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem signed SB 46, titled "An Act to protect fairness in women's sports," in a ceremony at the Capitol Rotunda in Pierre, after the bill passed the Senate and House in late January. The law requires K-12, intramural, club, and college athletic teams sponsored or sanctioned by an accredited school, school district, activities association, or the state Board of Regents or Board of Technical Education to be designated by biological sex, barring transgender girls and women from competing on female teams.

The signing made South Dakota the first state to enact an anti-transgender sports law in 2022, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

Why we recorded this

Equal treatment under law regardless of a person's identity is a foundational civil-rights principle. This law bars transgender girls and women from competing on female school and college sports teams consistent with their gender, categorically excluding a protected group from a public activity based on sex assigned at birth rather than any individualized assessment. This archive records government policy that excludes people based on a protected characteristic, a pattern seen in similar laws enacted across multiple states in this period.

Sources

  1. SD SB46 (2022) - An Act to protect fairness in women's sports — LegiScan (SD Legislature enrolled bill text) primary accessed July 18, 2026
  2. South Dakota bans trans women and girls from same-gender school sports teams — CNN secondary accessed July 18, 2026
  3. Gov. Noem signs transgender sports bill into law — Dakota News Now secondary accessed July 18, 2026

See also