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Gov. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., pledged to continue to fight for fairness in girls’ sports by promising legal action against the Biden administration.
This comes after the federal government threatened to withhold funds for school lunches from states that do not adopt the government’s Title X interpretation regarding discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
“President Biden is holding lunch money for poor Americans hostage in pursuit of his radical agenda. He is insisting that we allow biological males to compete in girls’ sports or else lose funding for SNAP and school lunch programs,” Noem said Thursday via a press release.
“South Dakota will continue to defend basic fairness so that our girls can compete and achieve,” the governor continued. “I would remind President Biden that we have defeated him in litigation before and are ready to do so again. Mr. President, we’ll see you in court.”
Noem’s promise to fight for girl’s sports comes after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in May that it will:
“Interpret the prohibition on discrimination based on sex found in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and in the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, as amended, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly the Food Stamp Program (7 USC § 2011 et seq.), to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”
Under this new measure, state governments and other agencies that receive funds from the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) must “update their non-discrimination policies and signage to include prohibitions against discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation” or potentially lose federal funding.
The USDA’s decision follows Biden’s executive order declaring that “children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.”
Essentially, South Dakota could lose funding based on legislation passed earlier this year prohibiting biological males from competing in female sports in schools.
However, the Mount Rushmore state refuses to go down without a fight, with Noem preparing to take action against the new initiative.
“@JoeBiden is insisting that we allow biological males to compete in girls’ sports or else lose funding for school lunch programs. South Dakota will continue to defend basic fairness so that our girls can compete and achieve,” Noem tweeted.
“Mr. President, we’ll see you in court.”