Nebraska group wants to limit school sports participation by sex in state constitution

State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of the Millard area, left, joins with former student-athletes Payton McNabb (North Carolina) and Riley Gaines (University of Kentucky) and Nebraska student-athlete Jordy Bahl (Huskers softball) for the signing of a bill led by Kauth to require student-athletes wishing to play in competitive sports in Nebraska to play on teams matching their sex at birth. June 4, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

BY JUAN SALINAS II

LINCOLN — A conservative-leaning group is starting a signature-gathering effort to let Nebraska voters limit sports participation in public K-12 and college to whether a team is male, female or mixed. 

Fairness for Girls, the group, announced its effort Monday to get the measure on this year’s general election ballot “to amend the Nebraska Constitution to establish constitutional protections for sex-seperate athletics to ensure equal access to athletic opportunities for females.” Similar efforts have been used in other states to motivate conservative turnout.

The amendment, if passed, would seek to constitutionally cement a state law 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. 

Nebraska passed that law last year, State Sen. Kathleen Kauth’s Legislative Bill 89. Kauth’s 2025 law 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.

Restrictions on transgender people have been a focus for Kauth, who represents the Millard area of Omaha, during her time in the Legislature. Many of her proposals in past legislative sessions have prompted filibusters and heated debates. This year, Kauth has proposed similar sex-based legal restrictions on school bathrooms and locker rooms as her priority bill

Several other states have pursued similar laws. The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing a case to decide whether 27 states’ laws that bar transgender girls from participating in team sports at publicly funded schools would be unconstitutional. The court has seemed inclined to uphold those state laws, according to NPR. 

The group behind the ballot initiative is led by a committee that includes University of Nebraska Regent Rob Schafer, former Dunbar State Sen. Julie Slama and Nebraska Family Alliance advocacy and engagement coordinator Elizabeth Nunnally. 

“Nebraskans support preserving opportunities for young girls, protecting female athletes’ safety, and keeping the process fair,” the group said in a statement. “Biological males competing in girls’ sports pose a physical safety risk to young girls while also taking away opportunities for medals, tournament advancement and scholarships.”

The group would need to gather the signatures of 10% of the state’s registered voters, in addition to gathering signatures from a geographic cross-section of Nebraska to change the state constitution. Fairness for Girls has until July to get on the November 2026 ballot.

In a social media post Monday, Rainbow Parents of Nebraska, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, called the petition effort “another distraction and an attempt to increase conservative voter turnout.”

Examiner Reporter Zach Wendling contributed to this report.