A new poll conducted by Spry Strategies on behalf of Women’s Liberation Front and the American Principles Project found that a majority of South Dakota voters disagree with “gender identity” policies, and would approve of Governor Kristi Noem supporting legislation like HB1217 to protect women’s single-sex spaces and sports. 

The poll is based on a sample of 600 likely voters in South Dakota and also includes detailed cross-tabs that break down the support across party and demographic lines. The results are in line with national and state polling in California and Idaho which found a similar lack of support for “gender identity” policies across likely voters.

In a press release on Thursday, Natasha Chart, Executive Director of WoLF said:

“These results provide evidence for what we already suspected. Common-sense approaches to ‘gender-identity’ resonate with South Dakota voters, just as they do across the rest of the country. We hope that Governor Noem will listen to her constituents and step up to protect women’s rights in the face of corporate bullying.”

Terry Schilling, Executive Director of the American Principles Project, stated:

"Given how many voters strongly support protecting women's sports, we hope Gov. Noem will soon join this movement as well. Defending a fair playing field for female athletes, as well as equal opportunities for women in general, should be a no-brainer.”

Summary of key results

• Fewer than one in three SD voters agree with Twitter suspending the accounts of users who state that humans cannot change sex.
  

• A majority of SD voters support legislation banning males from female athletics, and would be more likely to support Governor Noem if she supported such legislation.
  

• Over 60 percent of SD voters agree that men should not be permitted in women’s changing rooms, shelters, or athletics.
  

• Eighty percent of SD voters disapprove of allowing men who are sex offenders or domestic abusers to be housed in women’s prisons, including a majority of liberals.
  

• Voters of color, especially black voters, were the least likely demographic to support most “gender identity” policies.
  

Background

Bill HB1217 was proposed in the South Dakota House of Representatives on February 2, 2021 by Representative Rhonda Milstead. The bill would ensure that among athletic teams sponsored by public schools or funds, “A team or sport designated as being female is available only to participants who are female, based on their biological sex.” 

The bill is the seventh attempt to protect women’s sports in the past few years after the South Dakota High School Activities Association enacted a policy that allows male students to complete in women’s and girls’ sports if they claim to identify as female.

When Bill HB1057 was proposed last year, which would have made it illegal for medical professionals to perform elective cosmetic surgery on minors “for the purpose of attempting to change or affirm the minor's perception of the minor's sex, if that perception is inconsistent with the minor's sex,” opponents of the bill threatened the state with economic consequences should it pass. Citing a similar incident in North Carolina, opponents argued that large sporting events hosted by the NBA and NCAA may refuse to come to the state if the bill to protect children was passed.

Analysis

Despite claims that legislation like the proposed “Promote Continued Fairness in Women's Sports” act would be politically unpopular, the results of this poll reveal that not only do voters support bills like HB1217, but that they would also be more likely to support Governor Kristi Noem should she stand up to the threats and support the bill.

In total, 56.81% of voters agreed that Governor Noem should stand up to the corporations threatening to boycott or withhold jobs and investments and pass a bill like HB1217 to protect women’s single-sex spaces.

A majority of voters also stated that if Governor Noem did this, they would be more likely to support her in the future.

The results found that South Dakota voters, like voters in the rest of the country, largely disapprove of “gender identity” policies that would destroy single-sex spaces. Support largely fell along ideological lines, with the most liberal voters the most likely to support policies like allowing men in women’s homeless shelters. However, there were issues that voters did fairly unanimously agree on across ideological lines. For example, a majority of conservatives, moderates, and liberals all agreed that male sex offenders or domestic abusers should not be housed in women’s prisons. In total, only about eight percent of voters actually support such a policy.

Although the sample size of voters of color was small in this poll, the results also mirror outcomes from national polling which found that black and Hispanic voters were the least likely demographic to support “gender identity” policies that would give men access to certain women’s spaces such as prisons and sports—issues that disproportionately affect women in these communities. 

There were few differences of opinion between men and women in aggregate, however, women were more likely than men by nearly 10 points to strongly oppose policies that would allow the state to separate children from their parent’s custody if the parent refused to allow their child to undergo surgical or hormonal intervention to resemble the opposite sex. In total, only about 18 percent of voters actually support such policies. 

Full Results

• Aggregate tables

• Full crosstab data