South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), who recently signed a law cracking down on transgender athletes, was stumped Thursday when asked why she thinks nearly 90% of her state’s LGBTQ+ community reported dealing with anxiety or depression.
“I don’t know,” Noem told a reporter who confronted her with the statistic at a press conference. “That makes me sad, and we should figure it out.”
The data comes from a recent report by HelpAdvisor, a health and health care coverage assistance site, that analyzed rates of anxiety and depression among LGBTQ+ people across the United States. At 87%, South Dakota had the highest rate of LGBTQ+ residents reporting those mental health conditions, compared to 63% nationally.
Noem’s apparent puzzlement comes after human rights groups repeatedly raised concerns that a bill she signed earlier this month would further harm and alienate transgender people in her state, especially children. The legislation requires anyone playing on a female sports team to have been assigned female at birth, essentially forbidding transgender girls and women from competing.
“Transgender children are children,” the Human Rights Campaign’s senior counsel, Cathryn Oakley, said in a statement upon the bill’s signing. “They deserve the ability to play with their friends. This legislation isn’t solving an actual problem that South Dakota was facing: it is discrimination, plain and simple. Shame on Governor Noem.”
Oakley’s concern isn’t hypothetical, either. Last month, the Trevor Project released the results of a poll that found that more than 60% of LGBTQ+ youth said their mental health had deteriorated as a result of recent anti-transgender legislation, including bills related to sports.
South Dakota the 10th state to enact a law affecting transgender athletes and the first to do so in 2022.
When speaking about the legislation, Noem has said little acknowledging the effect it may have on transgender people and instead argued it is needed to maintain a level playing field for girls and women. In reality, there is no documented pattern of transgender athletes taking away opportunities from cisgender athletes.
Noem is also an opponent of same-sex marriage, and in 2021 she signed a bill that lets businesses deny goods and services to LGBTQ+ people on the basis of religious beliefs.