In addition to harming her state’s own LGBTQ+ citizens, she opposed COVID-19 prevention measures during pandemic, leading to several massive outbreaks in her state. In 2024, all nine tribes of South Dakota banned Noem from entering any tribal lands (consisting of 20% of South Dakota’s total land) after she baselessly claimed that Native American leaders are “personally benefiting” from Mexican drug cartels operating on tribal lands. She provided no evidence to support her claim.
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Kristi Noem at a glance
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Location: Pierre, South Dakota
Party Affiliation: Republican
Race/Ethnicity: Norwegian-American
Gender Identity: Female
Orientation: Heterosexual
Pronouns: She/her/hers
LGBTQ+ Ally: No
Social media
Kristi Noem’s stance on LGBTQ+ issues
Same-sex marriage
Noem disagrees with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, her spokeswoman Brittany Comins told The Argus Leader.
Trans children in sports
In March 2021, Noem signed executive orders banning ban transgender girls and women from participating in public school and university sports. The orders said, “Current policies that allow males to participate in women’s athletics threaten to diminish opportunities for women, due to the inherent physical differences between men and women.” The orders required people to play on sports teams matching the biological sex they were assigned at birth.
In February 2022, Noem signed S.B. 46, a law that bans transgender girls and women from participating in public school and university sports teams that match their gender identities. Noem said that the bill would protect “a level playing field” for girls. She bragged about this in a January 2022 campaign ad.
In South Dakota, only girls play girls’ sports.
Watch my new ad that debuts during prime time news programs across the country tonight about my bill that will give South Dakota the strongest law protecting female sports in the nation! pic.twitter.com/0bREmXz8eh
In November 2023, she was one of nine Republican governors who signed a letter to the NCAA asking the organization to ban trans women from competing in women’s sports.
Transgender access to public bathrooms
Noem supported H.B. 1005, a bill that would have restricted trans youth from accessing multi-occupancy bathrooms, locker rooms, and shower rooms. The bill would have also allowed students who witness trans classmates violating the law to sue their school districts. The bill died in the state legislature.
Don’t say gay/LGBTQ+ discussions in schools
While Noem hasn’t specifically commented on school policies that forbid LGBTQ+ content in schools, in 2021, she signed The 1776 Pledge, a Christian Nationalist pledge that calls on lawmakers to “promote a curriculum that teaches that all children are created equal, have equal moral value under God, our Constitution, and the law, and are members of a national community united by our founding principles,” prohibit “any curriculum that pits students against one another on the basis of race or sex,” and prevent “schools from politicizing education by prohibiting any curriculum that requires students to protest and lobby during or after school.”
The originators of the pledge, the 1776 Action Committee, said that it formed to stop”the far Left’s advance into K-12 classrooms.” The language in its pledge and its website echo that of other right-wing activists who have claimed that the presentation of LGBTQ+ issues in schools is divisive and distracting.
Gender-affirming care for trans youth
In February 2023, Noem signed H.B. 1080, a law that forbids doctors from validating any minor person’s transgender identity. It also forbids them from providing puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy (HRT), any sterilizing surgery, any surgery that constructs genitalia differing from the gender a person was assigned at birth, and any removal of “healthy or non-diseased body part or tissue.”
The procedures are only banned in the context of transitioning. That is, state lawmakers didn’t ban these medical treatments because they believe they’re too dangerous; they only banned a class of people from getting the procedures for a specific purpose.
In March 2021, Noem signed S.B. 124, a so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act that allowed potential exemptions to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people across a wide range of goods and services in the state.
Other LGBTQ+ issues
Noem has called for a ban on drag shows and any mention of “preferred pronouns” on public college campuses in order to protect “free speech.” While announcing her support of these policies, she blamed “safe spaces” and diversity initiatives for low graduation rates and post-grad underemployment. She also established a whistleblower hotline where citizens can “report concerns at institutions of higher education” in the state.
In February 12024, South Dakota was forced to issue an apology letter and pay $300,000 to the transgender advocacy group the Transformation Project after the state’s Department of Health under Noem discriminatorily terminated its contract with the organization after Noem was questioned about it by the right-wing media outlet The Daily Signal. The group sued, leading to the apology and payment.
Noem’s career
Attended Northern State University from 1990 to 1994, didn’t graduate
Worked on her family’s farm, adding a hunting lodge and restaurant to its businesses
Graduated from South Dakota State University with Bachelor of Arts in 2012
Elected to South Dakota’s House of Representatives in 2006
Elected to U.S. House of Representatives in 2010, re-elected in 2012, 2014, and 2016
Elected as South Dakota’s governor in 2018, re-elected in 2022
Noem doesn’t think about how her policies harm others
In response, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wrote on Twitter (now X), “Here’s a start for you, Governor. 1. Don’t advance policies that attack trans youth, 2. Don’t fund ads attacking LGBT youth, 3. support @POTUS’ agenda to enhance support for youth mental health needs, with funding made available through the American Rescue Plan,”
The Human Rights Campaign responded, “You not only signed an anti-trans bill into law, but also authored it yourself. If you’re looking for a reason why LGBTQ+ youth are struggling in South Dakota, look in the mirror.”
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