Pillen signs law defining male, female for Nebraska K-12 and college sports

LINCOLN — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen’s signature Wednesday was the final hurdle to legally requiring that all student-athletes competing in public K-12 or college sports this fall must do so on the team that matches their sex at birth.

Pillen’s approval of Legislative Bill 89, the “Stand With Women Act” from State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of the Millard area, allows it to take effect Sept. 3. That’s three months after the Legislature adjourned Monday. 

Kauth, who joined Pillen for the bill signing, said schools and colleges have been anticipating the legislation. She hopes it won’t take that long for them to comply.

“The work is not done. We’re going to continue,” Kauth said at the Wednesday signing ceremony.

Kauth confirmed that she would try again in the 2026 legislative session to set similar sex-based legal restrictions on school bathrooms and locker rooms, which LB 89 originally sought.

State Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston, one of the 33 Republicans to support LB 89, did so only after those provisions were taken out. 

He had said he did not want to be part of the “Nebraska State Potty Patrol.” Riepe previously said LB 89 took care of locker rooms indirectly and that he was against turning the Legislature into a “vehicle for fear, overreach and culture war crusades.”

“LB 89, as amended, respects that line,” Riepe said during the bill’s May 14 debate. “It focuses on competition, not surveillance. It protects sports, not panic.”

Kauth said she would continue working with Riepe on future legislation.

‘Fair playing ground’

Pillen, a defensive back for the Cornhuskers from 1975 to 1978, said sports are “Life 101,” helping someone learn to get up after getting knocked down, “dust ourselves off and keep going harder the next day.” Pillen said he remembers life before the landmark federal Title IX protections passed in 1972 and embraced women’s sports. He said LB 89 is a “fair playing ground.”

As he told the Nebraska Examiner in April, Pillen said Wednesday that he’s confident bathrooms will be addressed “in the meantime” before Kauth tries again in 2026.

“I have confidence that most of the young boys and men in Nebraska know right and wrong, and they’ll take care of whoever tries to go in the locker room or restroom [they’re not supposed to], because it is silly that we should be having these conversations,” Pillen said.

Asked by reporters what he meant, Pillen said it was “common sense” that men and boys don’t go into female restrooms or locker rooms. He declined to explain what he envisioned but said he was not suggesting violence.

“Never had a thought of promoting violence to any human being ever,” Pillen told reporters.

State Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha, who led opposition to LB 89, said last week that such a position is calling for “outright physical violence” against transgender youth.

“If I said in the news that I’m going to ‘take care of’ the governor for doing something I don’t like, what do you think would happen? Would I get a visit?” Hunt posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Hunt during debate said the law signaled a willingness to “prioritize political theater over actual governance, that we are willing to criminalize difference, that we will twist Title IX, which was meant to expand opportunity for everybody, into a tool of exclusion.”

New law requirements

Under the “Stand With Women Act,” “sex” will be defined in state law as whether someone “naturally has, had, will or would have, but for a congenital anomaly or intentional or unintentional disruption, the reproductive system that at some point produces, transports and utilizes” either eggs (female, woman or girl) or sperm (male, man or boy) for fertilization.

Public school competitive sports would be restricted to students’ sex at birth, for males or females only, unless the sport is coed/mixed. Exceptions will be made for sports with no female equivalent team, such as football.

Private schools would need to adopt a similar policy if student-athletes compete against public institutions.

A student-athlete would need to verify sex at birth with a doctor’s note before participating in single-sex sports. Kauth said she envisions such verification coming during a student’s physical exam, while opponents such as Hunt say it normalizes questioning someone’s appearance.

All 245 public school districts in the state, as well as community colleges, state colleges and the University of Nebraska, would need to adopt a policy complying with the new law. Enforcement of the new law would be left up to each school district. Pillen said there would be consequences if schools choose not to comply.

Following other states

Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer who pushed for similar laws in many states, joined the bill signing and thanked Pillen for his stewardship and Kauth for being relentless. Kauth first proposed the bill in 2023, when Pillen took office.

In August 2023, Gaines spoke to Nebraskans and urged support for Kauth’s legislation, calling it “spiritual warfare.” 

Just three days after Gaines’ speech, Pillen signed a “Woman’s Bill of Rights” administratively defining “male” and “female” for state agencies. The executive order remains in effect until a law addressing private female spaces, such as the original LB 89, is passed.

“I don’t think there’s, truthfully, a more worthy cause than to be here in Lincoln today with you guys, watching as Nebraska becomes the 28th state to protect women’s sports,” Gaines said. “Congratulations to Nebraskans across the state, to women across the state.”

‘Trying to defend reality’

Also speaking Wednesday was former high school student-athlete Payton McNabb of North Carolina. She said she planned to play collegiately until a severe injury in her senior year, when a volleyball spiked by an opposing player who was trans hit McNabb’s face. 

Gaines, in her previous Nebraska visit, spoke about the need for locker room protections after she saw male genitalia in a women’s locker room. McNabb said she was accused of sexual harassment by a man in a college women’s bathroom but was cleared of wrongdoing in January.

“Unfortunately, I’ve experienced this gender ideology push in more than one way, and it’s just not fair,” McNabb said. “No other girl should ever go through that.”

Local college athletes Jordy Bahl (Huskers softball) and Rebekah Allick (Huskers volleyball) also joined the signing. They were present when Kauth introduced the bill in January, which they said wasn’t about politics.

“We’re trying to defend reality, which is such a crazy fight that we have to fight, and though the opposition may not see it now, I think somewhere deep in their soul, they know,” Allick said, adding that later on, opponents will see the legislation was “in their best interest.”

‘We stand together’

A lead Nebraska opponent, executive director Abbi Swatsworth of the nonprofit OutNebraska, said she was disappointed Wednesday by the LB 89 signing. Swatsworth noted it comes as many families are celebrating Pride and “grappling with the reality of this harmful legislation.”

“Despite this harmful legislation, we stand together stronger this Pride. To the youth and their families who are struggling: We are with you. We will continue fighting this fight because you belong — yesterday, today and always,” Swatsworth said in a statement. “Trans people are brilliant, beautiful and resilient, and they belong here in our state.”

OutNebraska also shared support hotline numbers for the Trevor Project (1-866-488-7386), National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (988) and Trans Lifeline (877-565-8860).