Ahead of State Budget Conference Committee, 1,100+ South Carolinians Call for the Removal of Anti-LGBTQ+ Provisos

Today marks the start of the South Carolina Budget Conference Committee, when members of the House and Senate will come together to agree on a budget for the state. The SC United for Justice & Equality coalition is calling on the committee to remove three anti-LGBTQ+ provisos from the final budget. 

The three provisos all appear in the Senate version. They are:

• Amendment 24, which would function as a curriculum censorship bill. The proviso is similar to Florida's so-called "Don't Say Gay/Trans" law.

• Amendment 32, a censorship proposal that seeks to limit public libraries from carrying LGBTQ-related books.

• Amendment 95, which would block funds for the Pediatric Transgender Clinic at the Medical University of SC.

This morning committee members received a letter featuring the signatures of more than 1,100 South Carolinians, who signed a petition urging the committee to remove the discriminatory amendments. 

Ivy Hill (they/them pronouns), a leader in the SC United for Justice & Equality coalition, said today:

“It is the responsibility of the Budget Conference Committee to pass a clean budget that helps create a South Carolina where all of us can thrive – not a budget that’s been hijacked to sneak through anti-LGBTQ+ attacks. We hope to see the committee remove all three of these provisos, which were plucked dangerously and seemingly randomly from a grab bag of anti-LGBTQ+ proposals pushed by extreme forces nationwide. No young person should see their fundamental dignity and humanity undermined or questioned or erased by the state budget – but that’s what these provisos would do. It’s time for our lawmakers to do the right thing and remove them.”