THOUGHTS ON THE OUTCOME OF SB65

Sorry I haven't posted for a couple days. I was attending the State Planning Group for HIV and AIDS Prevention for the South Dakota Department of Health. I am a voting member at large. It was a very good meeting with some very positive news that we should be able to share publicly very soon. After I returned, I was fighting illness all day Saturday and couldn't focus on anything other than how bad I felt. Feeling better today, however.

One of the topics that was discussed was SB65. This is the bill that would require those who intentionally spread HIV to register as sex offenders. Everyone was in agreement that this bill would do nothing to help in HIV and AIDS prevention and would probably have a negative impact on our ability to get people tested and spread the word about reducing risky behaviors. Everyone also understood the reasons why it passed.

Some individuals within our LGBT community have been critical and even derogatory over the fact that Equality South Dakota was not able to defeat this bill. Fact is, no one was under any illusions about the prospects of defeating SB65. Yes, miracles do happen as they did in 2004 when several of us testified in Pierre against the marriage amendment and managed to convince the Joint State Affairs Committee to kill the bill. We didn't expect to see that happening this time. But we felt that it was important to make our concerns known and to have a presence on this bill and in the legislative session.

Good things did happen because of EQSD and the Centers' involvement. David gave great testimony before the Senate committee. It is well worth reading. The arguments put forth were rational, well thought out and respectful. Equality South Dakota and the LGBT community was put in a very positive light and appealed to reason and logic.

Those of us from the Centers and from EQSD were able to dialogue with legislators and others and were able to get them to see the rationality behind our concerns. Unfortunately our legislative system is designed to prevent a lot of in depth reasoning and discussion. The shortness of the session and the number of bills and concerns brought to the legislature means that there is not a lot of time for reason and logic. So, much legislation gets passed because of emotion and feel good issues that may or may not have the desired impact.

That was the case with SB65. It had the appearance of doing something about the problem and appealed to the emotions of those constituents who don't vote on the rationality of issues. Fact is it was counterproductive and will not help, only hinder HIV and AIDS prevention is South Dakota.

We all knew that going in but thought it important to have a rational presence amidst a sea of emotionalism. Many legislators and constituents saw EQSD in a very favorable light. That was the goal going in and it was accomplished. David did a great job and deserves a great deal of thanks from the LGBT community for his effort and his courage.

Actually showing up for the battle is a victory in and of itself.