001again more than taking advantage or tax exploration why put something in that why make something harder than it has to be i i'm i'm not transphobic i'm not homophobic i i i don't personally my belief is i don't care as long as you're happy be with whoever you want to be with be whatever you want to be i mean i had four inch tall spiked blue hair when i was in college and piercings because i thought that was going to make me happy it didn't it was a farce teach our children to love each other love themselves and provide assistance when need be but don't i would not have wanted anything for the school to change a darn thing just because i have my own mental disorder that's me i have to take care of
002it i don't want you or you or you to go out of your way because you're worried about that making me feel comfortable this is my life i have to be happy with myself and that's what we need to focus on not intermingling genders into restrooms and changing rooms and overnight stays support our children love our children and teach them to love themselves because doing this i'm sorry i understand the link to segregation in the past i'm not talking about segregation integrate everybody should be integrated that's fine go to school together go to class together do sports together but it is the intermingling of genders in situations where lack of better term nudity could come into play i i think if i would have walked into the females restroom when i was in high school
003just because i said because i honestly thought i felt like being transgender at that point time when i was in high school i would have been expelled on my rear end faster than you can say lickety-split but you know what i didn't want the world to change for me thank you thank you but i i am getting a report that our live stream is down do we know if that's back up okay okay i we will continue with the public comment that's here dondolin i will be very brief you you might have noticed i'm old so i don't have kids in school but i'm still interested in the school and in the community and i'm in favor of this policy it strikes me that most of the comments against it are based on fear and
004i i'm sympathetic to that but i think it's misplaced and so i hope you will adopt the policy thank you [Applause] harvey opp thank you for this opportunity i am sorry pastor here in vermillion and uh seems to me in this time of history we have a lot of people who want to be progressive for the sake of being progressive and it's gone against human history obviously i believe the bible is the truth it's enduring it's everlasting it tells us the true history of the actual history of the human race and human nature it also tells us how government is to restrain evil it tells us about the immoral acts that human beings are capable of it's not just mere possibility these things happen it's been said we were concerned about just fear and so
005forth and we want to protect everyone wants to protect all our students yes on both sides all of them but it's not just a possibility what in spite of what was said about loudon what happened there of course is that now it's said that a judge found this boy guilty of sexual assault and he entered masquerading as a girl then if the policy of of transgender inclusion was not there and he entered a girls restroom masquerading as a girl he's committed he's committed sexual assault and found guilty of a judge for that how much more then will it will the doors be open to that with this policy if you approve it how much more it will happen in time no doubt about it and your names if you approve this policy will be appended
006to that will be go down in history as those who open the door for this who made it possible instead any government as i said is to restrain evil i urge you to be careful and to do what is right we don't need this policy human beings have understood male and female throughout the centuries throughout millennia it's not hard to understand and if you're going to say well we should just open up the restrooms for our students whoever can come in why are we doing that with adults you know i don't hear anyone clamoring for that in the public restrooms and so forth you know we care more about a few clamoring for something that they're confused about quite actually i need counseling about than reality again it will happen and your names will be
007to it if you vote for this policy when common sense and truth returns to our culture if you vote against this and want to protect all then your names will be on the right side this is a blip in history that will pass common sense and truth will be upheld you know that i think you know that all we know that in our hearts please vote no against this proposed policy thank you april carville i'm sorry hello i'm dr april carrillo i use the pronoun she her hers and i am an assistant professor at the university of south dakota i don't know if i made that clear last time but i want to this time because of the concerns over the comments last week although this policy would not affect our campus there are some
008students as you can see who are very concerned about the comments that were made last week so i want to let them know that one person and some people do not represent the whole we are not a monolith we are many and there are some of us who do not align with those beliefs i am one of those people last time when i was here i was pretty relentless with the facts i went one after the other and i brought the ones that i brought fact supporting trans bathroom policy which study with studies that showed that they pose no danger to cisgender students they help trans students they prevent suicide and unequal education outcomes the reason that i brought those was that often the opposition as what's been said tonight is that the opposition says
009that we are um that we are using fact they're using feelings a set of facts when that's not true i am an academic which means i am trained in reading studies and understanding how to figure out if they're credible or not despite if i like the outcome i study lgbtq issues with the criminal legal system i specifically focus on gender identity that is my bread and butter so when i bring you studies and what i can tell you i've looked at them i looked at these studies that have been weaponized against trans youth and i can assure you they are all one step above pseudoscience i would be the first one to admit if they were not but if you have any questions or concerns i'm not that hard to find so feel free to
010email me if you want to discuss further now another thing i want to address are the contradictions when you use the social construction argument against gender identity gender identity cannot be socially constructed and rooted in biological essentialism what i mean is that you cannot accuse trans kids of constructing their own identity but then also say that the gender you are born as is what will dictate the rest of your life this logic says if you are born female you will be a woman be in the kitchen be a secretary or teacher work and have children when that's not true despite the fact that it'll be good despite the fact that there have been large-scale gender equity movements that have gone so far to break down those barriers and gender roles but yet here we are
011applying them to children sex is a biological apparatus where gender is psychological which means that it happens in the brain there are two different things in one person that will parallel each other also if gender was not socially constructed we will be bound to the rules by our biology which we as humans do not experience every person who was assigned female birth in this room does not have the same job goals likes or would even date the same people there is no nature that is independent of social context especially in a species like ours that is based heavily on social interaction i lastly want to give great thanks to all the parents students advocates and community allies who have come here consistently to support the very children whose mental physical and emotional well-being are being
012debated in this room this is necessary but hard work there are actually two members of this very school board who've been unfairly targeted online for their support for a policy that enhances civil liberties in a state where we center freedom expression and the american dream where is that if a child cannot even go to the bathroom in peace thank you bridgette diamond welch hi my name is bridget diamond welch i wanted to speak today in support of the new gender equity policy as a mother of a child in the vermillion school district i've been continually impressed by how caring and considerate the teaching teachers and staff are my child is neurodivergent and has many difficulties in adjusting to the school schedule the teachers and staff have continually worked with him and my family to make
013sure that he's respected heard and feels cared for and is safe i would expect that the school its teachers and its staff would want the same for all students this policy that that is what this policy represents and ensures that all students are safe and provides them with the ability to have their bodily autonomy respected i encourage you to continue showing the best of vermilion and our community by passing this policy [Applause] emma i'm going to apologize i can't read your last name i know it starts with a p yeah my handwriting sucks sorry um hello my name is emma prouty i am a senior at usd finishing my undergraduate degree many here might recognize my last name i am from elk point and was in vermilion more times than i can count vermilion was
014this fun cool place that i got to come and play my instrument or sing and be around people that i felt were similar to me and had same interests as me my parents or many parents here tonight planned to come up and talk about how unfair this bill is to the majority or to the straight cisgender children of vermilion while it is important to think about them and worry about their safety and their comfort nobody is being a voice for these poor children who are uncomfortable every single day nobody is sticking up for the kids who don't know what it means to be themselves or who don't feel safe doing that or feel comfortable doing that i am here to be an advocate for these children i'm here to tell you about the uncomfort they
015face every single day it's not uncomfort it's not just uncomfort at school it's uncomfort in their body in their home in their family or even in their friend groups they are uncomfortable every second of the day because they either don't know who they are or they don't feel comfortable expressing who they are because they know they will not be accepted i sat and i watched the two-hour long meeting last to the man who talked about the things we learn in kindergarten being the most important things you'll learn in life this is not diminishing that it's adding to it how important is it to learn you can be whoever you want to be in life and you need to be accepted for that and you want to accept accept other people for this as well how
016is that any different from what we learn anyway treat people the way that you want to be treated how would every single person who got up here today and talked about how these children don't deserve a bathroom how would they like to be treated in the same aspect would they want the same treatment that they are giving to a child to the university professor that got up here and talked about how we need to be put up with children are not people that you put up with lgbtq youth is not a group that you put up with we are humans we are siblings we are daughters sons we are children we are not a group that you put up with this is not a matter of tolerance this is a matter of looking out for
017children i work in a place where i see the end result of people getting put up with i get to see what they get turned into instead of community members how would you like to see one of these children that you say you have to tolerate turn to meth or cocaine or alcohol how would you like to see one of these children that you put up with try and commit suicide because they feel they need to be put up with your close-minded ways are the reason that the suicide rate within the lgbt is as high as it is and if you need someone to teach you maybe come to a spectrum meeting maybe open your mind but this is not children are not something that you need to be tolerated with we should be tolerating
018you and your point not the other way around to the man who talks about segregating children we've been here before society has done this before if this is where we go i hope you're prepared for the number of students who get bullied beat up and severely hurt because they just want to go to the bathroom you also talk about the 90 the 90 have been protected their entire lives this is about the 10 percent that have not seen protection at all to all the people coming and making a point about having gay friends or no gay people when i came out this was thrown in my face i came out and had a family member look me