Sex-based constitutional restriction on Nebraska K-12, collegiate sports qualifies for ballot

LINCOLN — A ballot measure that would let Nebraska voters decide whether to constitutionally limit sports participation in public K-12 schools and colleges to teams that are biologically male, female or co-ed will be on the November ballot, the state’s top election official announced Friday. 

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen announced the conservative-leaning group behind the measure collected at least 138,613 valid signatures. The group, Fairness for Girls, said it submitted more than 211,000 signatures in June for the proposal. 

The group needed to gather signatures from 10% of the state’s registered voters, as well as a geographic cross-section of Nebraska.

The measure would “amend the Nebraska Constitution to establish constitutional protections for sex-separate athletics to ensure equal access to athletic opportunities for females.” The amendment, if passed, would constitutionally cement an existing state law requiring that all student-athletes compete in public K-12 or college sports compete on a team that matches their sex at birth.

The Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office will produce an informational pamphlet for this measure and hold public meetings in each of the state’s three congressional districts. The ballot initiative is one of the four statewide ballot measures whose petitions are under investigation by the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office for possible fraud. 

The Legislature passed a law last year, introduced by state Sen. Kathleen Kauth, that defined “sex” 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 or sperm for fertilization. 

The ballot language won’t define “sex” in the state constitution itself, relying on the definition in state law. 

The general election is Nov 3.