Pornography Declared Health Crisis by South Dakota
Good! The third state to realize the extraordinary harm the easy availability of pornography is doing to children. It is responsible, I believe, for the growing Culture of Rape and for the increasing numbers of children being sexually assaulted by other children. Something must be done to make pornography 100% inaccessible by children.
Senators in South Dakota have passed a resolution declaring pornography a public health crisis, joining Virginia and Utah among that states stepping up efforts to highlight the dangers of x-rated adult material.
According to resolution SCR4, passed in South Dakota, porn leads to risky sexual activity, low-self esteem and sometimes eating disorders.
Advances in technology are exposing young children to pornography “at an alarming rate,” and pornography is “linked to a lessening desire in young persons to marry,” the resolution states.
Republican Senator Jenna Netherton from Sioux Falls sponsored the resolution along with 51 other Republicans, stating that pornography increasingly causes harm to “men, women and children,” thanks to its availability on the internet and smartphones.
The Republican Party’s 2016 Party Platform also targeted pornography as a “public health crisis” that is “destroying the lives of millions.”
An ugly subject better dealt with quietly and locally
S.D. lawmakers file bill barring transgender students from shower, locker rooms
Dana Ferguson
PIERRE -- A pair of South Dakota lawmakers filed a bill Wednesday aimed at barring transgender students from locker rooms, shower rooms and changing changing rooms that don't match their biological sex at birth.
The measure, which is similar to a bill vetoed by Gov. Dennis Daugaard in 2016, would allow separate accommodations for transgender students who don't wish to use facilities that don't correspond with their gender identity. The 2016 bill would have expanded that ban to include restrooms.
Sen. Lance Russell, R-Hot Springs, and Rep. Thomas Brunner, R-Nisland, sponsored the measure, which had not yet been assigned to a committee Wednesday afternoon.
Russell said he brought the measure in hopes of addressing lingering concerns about privacy in public school locker room, shower room and changing facilities and to provide additional support to small school districts.
“I believe the public was bewildered by the veto last year and that the Legislature’s failure to protect the school districts in their efforts to protect all of the students,” Russell said.
The legislation was drafted by the conservative advocacy group Family Heritage Alliance Action, that also backed the 2016 bill aimed at restricting access to bathrooms for transgender students. The group's executive director, Dale Barstcher, said he was hopeful that the new language would help it gain traction in the Legislature and with the governor.
Opponents of the bill including civil rights advocates and allies of the LGBT community said they would fight the bill at the Capitol as they did with House Bill 1008.
Libby Skarin, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota, said the measure was discriminatory and could isolate transgender students.
“Transgender children are already some of the most vulnerable in our state, so it’s especially shameful that some South Dakota politicians are once again focused on singling them out for discrimination," Skarin said in a statement. "All this bill does is send the message that it’s okay for their peers – and state politicians – to target and bully transgender children."
The Sioux Falls School Board, as well as state public education groups, have opposed the measure and asked last year that the Legislature not take it up. Sioux Falls School Board President Todd Thoelke said that the district hasn't had any problems dealing with transgender students' needs on a case-by-case basis.
Daugaard earlier this year said he viewed similar bills as a "solution in search of a problem" and said situations of bathroom or locker room use in schools were best dealt with at the local level.
Bad man, messing with two interns while engaged to someone else
South Dakota Lawmaker Quits Over Sexual Contact With Interns
By JAMES NORD, ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017 photo, Republican Rep. Mathew Wollmann sits on the House floor in Pierre, S.D. The House decided to investigate Wollmann, who told reporters that he had sexual contact with interns during the past two legislative sessions. (AP Photo/James Nord)
A South Dakota legislator who admitted having sexual contact with two interns resigned on Monday, saying he regretted his actions during the past two legislative sessions.
Republican Rep. Mathew Wollmann, 26, said last week that both interns were over age 21 and that the contact during the 2015 and 2016 legislative sessions was consensual. But his colleagues voted to set up a committee to investigate his actions, and they were scheduled to meet Tuesday.
Wollmann announced his resignation in a letter first reported by the Mitchell Daily Republic newspaper. The former Marine didn't immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press, but the Legislative Research Council provided a copy of his letter.
The meeting on Wollmann's conduct is still planned, said Republican Rep. Timothy Johns, chairman of the House Select Committee on Discipline and Expulsion.
In South Dakota, legislative interns are college students, some 21 or older. Legislative rules don't explicitly ban sexual contact or relationships between lawmakers and interns, although they do prohibit sexual harassment and call on lawmakers to maintain "the highest of moral and ethical standards."
Wollmann, from the eastern South Dakota city of Madison, first won the seat in 2014. In the letter, Wollmann expressed his regret, writing that he hoped to return to the Legislature in the future.
"I have nothing but the greatest respect for those that I have grown so close to these past two years, and even in these early days of the 92nd legislative session," Wollmann wrote. "Those that read this should know that it is my wrongdoing that has put this institution in a sour light. Those responsible for me have displayed nothing but the highest honor for this establishment."
House Majority Leader Lee Qualm, House Speaker Mark Mickelson and Minority Leader Spencer Hawley said in a statement that Wollmann decided "this was best for him, his fiance, his family and the young ladies involved."
"Every legislator has an obligation to refrain from behavior unbecoming to the Legislature and inconsistent with maintaining the public's trust," the House leaders said.
Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard said in a statement that he thinks Wollmann made the right decision. Daugaard said he will act quickly to name a replacement.
Wollmann's public admission came shortly after a legislative committee voted down a new rule to explicitly bar legislators from sexual contact with interns and pages. One lawmaker who spoke against the change said he felt the current rules were sufficient.
The House leaders said they will meet with lawmakers, interns and staff to discuss potential improvements that could be made to legislator and employee training and any updates to legislative rules. Hawley told the AP that he supports discussing new rules.
Wollmann is the second South Dakota lawmaker in roughly a decade to be investigated by lawmakers for alleged misconduct involving interns or pages. In 2007, the state Senate censured Democrat Dan Sutton after he was accused of fondling an 18-year-old page when they shared a motel room during the 2006 legislative session. Sutton denied the allegation and was re-elected.
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