Bill defining male and female for sports, locker rooms and restrooms advances in Unicameral – Nebraska Public Media

By Brian Beach , Reporter Nebraska Public Media
April 22, 2025, 8 p.m. ·
A bill requiring Nebraska students to play sports with their assigned sex at birth instead of their gender identity overcame a filibuster effort Tuesday evening.
Sen. Kathleen Kauth’s Stand With Women Act, LB89, received the exact number of votes necessary to end the first round of debate and advance to select file.
Kauth’s bill defines male and female and uses those definitions to determine what sports Nebraskans can compete in at K-12 schools and universities.
In the bill, female is defined as “an individual who naturally has, had, will have, or would have, but for a congenital anomaly or intentional or unintentional disruption, the reproductive system that at some point produces, transports, and utilizes eggs for fertilization.” Males are defined similarly, replacing the word ‘eggs’ with ‘sperm.’
Kauth said her bill is necessary to protect women’s athletics 50 years after the passage of Title IX, while not prohibiting anyone from playing sports.
“Everyone can play sports, but they need to play on their sex-specific or coed teams. This is about safety and privacy in facilities,” she said.
The bill also requires locker rooms and bathrooms to be designated as male, female, family or single occupancy. Schools are prohibited from allowing males to use female faclilities and vice versa, under the sex definitions outlined in the bill.
“This approach can help prevent potential situations of discomfort or vulnerability, particularly for young students who may feel uneasy about sharing intimate spaces with individuals of the opposite sex,” she said.
The Stand With Women Act marks the third time in the last three years Kauth has introduced a bill dealing with transgender policy.
In 2023, the Let Them Grow Act, which restricted gender-affirming care for minors, passed alongside a 12-week abortion ban, following a session-long filibuster from progressive senators. But last year, her Sports and Spaces Act, a bill narrower than this year’s LB89 that would only apply to K-12 schools, failed to advance after falling two votes short of the amount needed to overcome a filibuster.
Executive orders at the state and federal level have also been signed in recent years, making for a different landscape than when the Let them Grow Act was first passed. In August 2023, Gov. Jim Pillen established a “Women’s Bill of Rights” through executive order. And on his first day in office earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order stating that that the federal government will only recognize two sexes.
During Tuesday’s debate, several conservative senators referenced a New York Times/Ipsos survey from earlier this year, where 79% of respondents said transgender female athletes should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports. That number included 97% of Republican or Republican-leaning respondents and 67% of Democrat or Democrat-leaning respondents.
Senators also highlighted the differences in athletic ability between the sexes. Sen. Loren Lippincott said the bill simply recognizes a “biological truth.”
“After puberty, testosterone surges in males, amplifying these advantages, and the study notes that male athletes can generate up to 30% more power in explosive movements like sprinting or jumping. These are not small gaps. They're game changers,” he said.
Sen. Megan Hunt led a filibuster of the bill. She said it is a political distraction that serves to oppress vulnerable people.
“Proponents say this bill is needed because some cisgender girls feel unsafe, but what you're describing isn't danger, it's discomfort, and if your solution to someone's discomfort is to humiliate somebody, to isolate and endanger somebody else, you're not solving a problem, you're creating one,” she said.
Sen. George Dungan said he’s met with the parents of transgender youth and said the message the bill sends has a negative effect on their mental health.
“It's not until you sit across the room from a family who is telling you the story about their adolescent child trying to take their life that I think you fully grasp the harm that we cause as a legislature by even debating these issues,” he said.
Dungan also cited a study published in Nature that found state-level anti-transgender laws increased suicide attempts among transgender and non-binary young people.
Opponents also questioned how the bill would be enforced. Hunt said it has the potential to “outsource bullying” from the government and put it in the hands of students and teachers.
“It requires school staff to become gender police,” she said. “It turns students into suspects. It encourages teachers to interrogate kids based on how they look, how they dress, what color their backpack is, how they walk, what the politics of their parents are, how they speak.”
Sen. Margo Juarez said senators should also consider the potential economic consequences of the bill.
“Will the College World Series pull out of Omaha? Will medical residents head out of the state? Will certified doctors exit? Will other athletic events choose a welcoming destination?” she asked.
Sen. Merv Riepe, who did not vote to advance Kauth’s Sports and Spaces Act last year, introduced an amendment Tuesday that would narrow the scope of the Stand With Women Act to only apply to interscholastic sports.
While that amendment was not added to the bill during the first round of debate, Riepe said he would only vote to advance LB89 further if it is adopted on the second round.
“I share the underlying concern, the importance, if you will, of preserving the integrity of interscholastic sports competition in Nebraska,” he said. “However, I do not believe that concern justifies using state law to micromanage who may use which bathrooms or locker rooms.”
After four hours of debate, the bill advanced on a 33-16 vote, with all 33 Republican-affiliated senators voting for the bill in the officially nonpartisan Unicameral. In order to become law, it will need to advance through two more rounds of debate and be signed by Pillen.
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