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USC trustees, transgender athletes discussed at SC State House

Lawmakers raced against the crossover deadline this past week, approving measures related to transgender athletes, and the USC board of trustees.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — With the crossover deadline now here, South Carolina lawmakers rushed to pass several measures just in time.

The South Carolina House of Representatives got to work this past week. First, they passed a controversial bill that could ban transgender students from their gender-identified sports teams.

Representative Cezar McKnight spoke in favor of the bill on Wednesday saying, “there are fundamental differences between men and women and we can’t overlook those differences.”

After nearly nine hours of debate, the so-called “save women’s sports act” passed 80 to 24.

However, other conservative efforts like censoring certain classroom topics and abortion-related measures died at the crossover deadline.

On a more united front, the House passed a bill almost unanimously to revamp USC’s board of trustees. The measure could ax the current board members next year. "It's a complete restructure in 15 months," explained Representative Kirkman Finlay.

The effort comes after board members were grilled recently for suspicious activities – including sexual harassment lawsuits. Finlay told News19, "it just feels like a continuing, churning set of very volatile and toxic conditions."

Lastly, after making a few changes, a House committee passed South Carolina’s medical cannabis bill, getting it one step closer to potentially becoming law.

“I’d rather people have access to safe use of medical marijuana than having to go out and trying to go to another state or illegally obtain marijuana,” shared Representative Deon Tedder during the meeting.

The bill that could allow certain South Carolinians with medical conditions to obtain cannabis passed the Senate earlier this year and can now be taken up by the full House.

The house is out on Easter break next week but the Senate returns on Tuesday.

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