THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2016 HEALTH & SCIENCE South Dakota governor vetoes law on transgender bathrooms PIERRE: South Dakota’s governor vetoed a In Texas, Houston voters soundly defeat- bill that would have made the state the first ed an ordinance that would have banned in the US to approve a law requiring trans- discrimination against transgender people gender students to use bathrooms and after opponents alleged it would allow sex- locker rooms that match their sex at birth. ual predators to go into women’s bath- Republican Gov Dennis Daugaard, who rooms. Daugaard initially offered a positive initially reacted positively to the proposal reaction to South Dakota’s proposal, but but said he needed to research the issue, said he wanted to listen to testimony rejected the bill Tuesday after groups such before making a decision. Last week, he as the American Civil Liberties Union and met with three transgender individuals and the Human Rights Campaign insisted it was heard their personal stories; before the discriminatory. meeting, the governor said he had never In his veto message, Daugaard said the knowingly met a transgender person. bill “does not address any pressing issue” and that such decisions were best left to Vulnerable students local school officials. He also noted that Opponents said the legislation was an signing the bill could create costly liability attack on vulnerable transgender students issues for schools and the state. The ACLU that would further marginalize them at had promised to encourage legal action if school. They also criticized comments the bill became law. made by some lawmakers, including “I am so happy right now. You have no Republican Sen. David Omdahl. idea,” said 18-year-old Thomas Lewis, a “I’m sorry if you’re so twisted you don’t transgender high school student in Sioux know who you are,” Omdahl said when Falls. Lewis said he has support at his asked about the bill last month. “I’m telling school, but that the veto shows such sup- you right now, it’s about protecting the KAZAKHSTAN: Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko (left), Sergey Volkov, (center) and US astronaut Scott Kelly rest in chairs outside the port goes beyond his friends. “The govern- kids, and I don’t even understand where Soyuz TMA-18M space capsule after they landed in a remote area outside the town of Dzhezkazgan. — AP photos ment’s not going to hold me back from our society is these days.” Under the plan, who I really am,” he said. schools would have been required to pro- The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Fred vide a “reasonable accommodation” for International Space Station’s Deutsch, said he would ask lawmakers not transgender students, such as a single- to override the veto, saying more focus on occupancy bathroom or the “controlled the issue would detract from the use” of a staff-designated restroom, locker ‘one year crew’ returns home Legislature’s other accomplishments this room or shower room. year. The Republican-controlled Legislature Supporters said the proposal was a approved the bill last month, with support- response to changes in President Barack Preparing for a potential mission to Mars ers saying it would protect student privacy. Obama administration’s interpretation of the federal Title IX anti-discrimination law DZHEZKAZGAN, Kazakhstan: US astronaut Scott New flashpoint related to education. Federal officials have Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko Transgender rights have become a new said barring students from restrooms that returned to Earth yesterday after spending almost a flashpoint in the nation’s cultural clashes match their gender identity is prohibited year in space in a ground-breaking experiment following the landmark US Supreme Court under Title IX. Deutsch had said the plan foreshadowing a potential manned mission to Mars. ruling that legalized same-sex marriage last pushed back “against federal overreach and The 340-day mission saw Kelly claim the record for year. The high court victory encouraged intrusion into our lives.” the longest single stay in space by a US astronaut, advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and Heather Smith, executive director of the while Kornienko is now fifth on the list for lengthi- transgender rights to push harder, prompt- ACLU of South Dakota, said Tuesday that est mission by a Russian cosmonaut. ing backlash from conservatives. Caitlyn had the governor signed the bill, schools “We have landing,” Russian Mission Control con- Jenner, the transgender activist and former would have been forced to choose whether firmed after the trio touched down southeast of the Olympic decathlon gold medalist, had follow state or federal law. She also said her settlement of Dzhezkazgan in central Kazakhstan at called on Daugaard to veto the bill. organization would have encouraged any around 0430 GMT. After returning from his lengthy Opponents also used the South Dakota student harmed by the new law to file a stint in space Kelly was clearly in high spirits as he Tourism Department’s Twitter hashtag to federal civil rights complaint. was lowered to the ground by burly Russian rescue take aim at the state’s roughly $3.8 billion Smith said people from across the state workers at the landing site. tourism industry. and country reached out to the governor to Other high-profile cases include last urge this veto. She said that’s the true testa- week’s vote in North Carolina by the ment of democracy. Chad Griffin, president Charlotte City Council to allow transgender of the Human Rights Campaign, added that people to choose a bathroom. The vote the governor “chose to do the right thing.” was immediately criticized by Gov. Pat “Today, the voices of fairness and equality McCrory, who said it denied privacy rights prevailed, and these students’ rights and for those who expect to share restrooms or dignity prevailed against overwhelming KAZAKHSTAN: Russia’s Soyuz TMA-18M space capsule carrying the International Space Station locker rooms only with people born with odds and vicious opponents in the state (ISS) crew of US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey the same anatomy. Legislature,” Griffin said. — AP Volkov prepares to land. helped us take one giant leap toward putting boots lights and the North cast in a blanket of darkness. on Mars.” The pair were subjected to a battery of Another impressive shot was one of the Milky Way tests before and after their ascent towards the ISS which Kelly described as “old, dusty, gassy and KAZAKHSTAN: Ground personnel help and underwent more tests soon after landing. warped. But beautiful.” International Space Station (ISS) crew mem- Weightlessness reduces muscle mass and bone “Spaceflight is the biggest team sport there is, ber Scott Kelly of the US to get off the Soyuz density and is believed to diminish eyesight by and it’s incredibly important that we all work TMA-18M space capsule after landing. increasing cerebrospinal fluid around the optic together to make what is seemingly impossible “The air out here feels great. I’ve no idea why nerve. Kelly, 52, was also part of an experiment possible,” Kelly said when handing over command you guys are so bundled up,” NASA TV reported him comparing his development and changes in space of the ISS to fellow NASA astronaut Tim Kopra on as saying as he sat upright in a chair on the steppe with his identical twin brother-Mark-back on Earth. Monday. The ISS trio leave behind Kopra, Russian in temperatures just below zero degrees Celsius (32 He will now arrive by chartered flight in Houston for cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and the European degrees Fahrenheit). Kelly and Kornienko returned a NASA medical examination. Space Agency’s British astronaut Tim Peake. with Russia’s Sergei Volkov, who was stationed at NASA’s Jeff Williams and Roscosmos’ Oleg the ISS for over five months and was met upon Gorilla in space Skriprochka and Alexey Ovchinin, will join them fol- landing by his father, retired cosmonaut Aleksandr In his year aboard the space station Kelly has lowing a launch from Baikonur later this month. The Volkov. The “one-year crew” mission-which began been an avid Internet poster, capturing stunning record Kelly beat for consecutive days spent in on March 27 last year-was the longest by any astro- views on his Instagram page and tweeting regularly space by an American astronaut was previously nauts aboard the ISS and seen as a vital chance to to nearly a million followers while travelling some held by Michael Lopez-AlegrÌa, who spent 215 measure the effects of a prolonged period in space 143 million miles. straight days in space in 2007. on the human body. In one particularly eye-catching stunt, the bald- The world record for longest single stay in headed astronaut posted a short video of himself space is held by Russian Valery Polyakov, who ‘Giant leap to boots on Mars’ dressed up in a gorilla suit and floating through the spent some 438 days on the Mir space station “Scott Kelly’s one-year mission aboard the ISS in pursuit of a colleague. “Needed a little humor from 1994 to 1995. The ISS space laboratory has International Space Station has helped to advance to lighten up a year in space,” he wrote on Twitter been orbiting Earth at about 28,000 kilometers an PIERRE: Representatives from the Center for Equality, American Civil Liberties deep space exploration and America’s Journey to on February 23, when he posted the video. hour since 1998. Space travel has been one of the Union of South Dakota, LGBT supporters and members of the Human Rights Mars,” NASA administrator Charles Bolden in a state- One image Kelly tweeted captured the econom- few areas of international cooperation between Campaign stand on the front steps of the State Capitol to honor Trans Kids Support ment.