Push to add limits on school sports participation to Nebraska Constitution gathers 211k signatures

LINCOLN — A ballot measure that would let Nebraska voters decide whether to limit sports participation in public K-12 schools and colleges to teams that are biologically male, female or co-ed has enough signatures to be on the November ballot, the conservative-leaning group behind it announced Tuesday. 

The group – Fairness for Girls – announced that it has collected more than 211,000 signatures. The signatures still must be verified by the Secretary of State’s Office. 

The deadline for petitions to get measures on the November ballot is July 2. The group needed to gather signatures from 10% of the state’s registered voters, as well as a geographic cross-section of Nebraska, to change the state constitution. 

Fairness for Girls said it collected the most signatures in state history for a ballot initiative. A 2024 abortion related ballot initiative held the record with 207,000 signatures.

“Girls deserve equal opportunities in their sports,” sponsor and former Dunbar state Sen. Julie Slama said in a statement. “Men competing in girls’ sports steal their opportunities to earn scholarships, medals, and advancement.”

Rainbow Parents of Nebraska, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, has previously called the effort “another distraction and an attempt to increase conservative voter turnout.” 

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 on a team that matches their sex at birth. 

Nebraska 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. 

Kauth, who represents the Millard area of Omaha, has focused on putting restrictions on transgender people during her time in the Legislature. Her proposals in past legislative sessions have prompted filibusters and heated debates. Kauth’s latest efforts – to restrict public bathrooms to users’ sex at birth and outlaw certain medical care for Nebraska youths with gender dysphoria – failed last legislative session.

The focus on transgender individuals has mobilized the Republican base. It helped Republicans during the last presidential election by driving conservative turnout. Although, it saw limits in last year’s Omaha mayoral race. 

Nebraska Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, when asked how this initiative might affect turnout in November, said he “certainly wants to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to turn out and vote for this ballot initiative”

“I hope that people do,” Ricketts told the Examiner.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld two state laws that bar transgender girls from participating in team sports at publicly funded schools Tuesday. Twenty-five other states have similar laws. 

The general election is Nov 3.