South Dakota state Rep. Phil Jensen, a Republican, testifies in support of his resolution that would express sympathy for those facing charges in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023, in Pierre, S.D. (AP Photo/Amancai Biraben)

South Dakota state Rep. Phil Jensen (R-Rapid City) was forced out of his House Education Committee vice chairmanship after introducing a bill that would defund a school hundreds of miles away from Jensen’s district. 

Jensen said that the bill, which was withdrawn, was a backlash to the Huron School District’s policy on transgender students using the bathroom which matches their gender identity. Huron lies some 300 miles east of Jensen’s district. 

“They allow boys to go in the girls’ bathrooms now,” Jensen said. “And that’s unacceptable.”

In response to Jensen’s demotion, House Education Committee Chairwoman Lana Greenfield (R-Doland) requested that the Rapid City representative avoid the committee’s Wednesday meetings. 

“I just thought instead of inciting any kind of a problem, it would be better if he would leave,” Greenfield told the South Dakota Searchlight.

LGBTQ+ activists in the state were quick to reply to Jensen’s conduct. 

“For almost a decade we have seen Rep. Phil Jensen propose hateful, discriminatory legislation that targets transgender South Dakotans,” Susan Williams, executive director of the Transformation Project in Sioux Falls, said in a statement. 

“His demotion after his latest incidence of transphobia is well deserved. Rep. Jensen’s desire to use his position to hurt marginalized people, rather than help them is deplorable.”

Jensen seemed comfortable rescinding his legislation because fellow South Dakotan Republicans had introduced a similar version that would deploy a statewide ban to what Jensen proposed. Indeed, Jensen himself cosponsored House Bill 1259. 

“The administrator of a public school shall designate any multi-occupancy student changing room, restroom, or shower room, located in the school, for use exclusively by females or for use exclusively by males,” the bill reads. Those who violate this policy in schools and government buildings could face a class two misdemeanor.